Raging Rivers
by SerenitySparrow
Summary: Sequel to my story Burning Bridges. Samantha wants nothing more than to end her father's silent reign of terror and to cease living in fear, hidden as a boy until her father is gone, one way or another. She hires the A-Team, never expecting her life to change so dramatically or to fall in love with the one man she can never have: the A-Team's golden child womanizer.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: Hello again! I had so much fun writing Burning Bridges that I couldn't help wanting to write something for Face. Also, more Murdock and Karina. Not as much as this is Face's story, but they will have their moments. (They have a moment in this first chapter, as a matter of fact.)**

 **Disclaimers: Do not own nor am I affiliated in any way with the characters or the creators of the characters of the actors who portrayed them. I make no money in writing this. I only write this out of boredom and for my own entertainment.**

Face sighed as he watched his best friend chase his giggling two and a half year old daughter through the yard of the small one story home he himself had managed to get brought down to half its asking price for himself and BA to live in. It was a quaint house with a breakfast nook and everything, even an outdoor heated pool that Face had determinedly made sure was guarded by a gate. He didn't want his precious god-niece getting into any accidents. She had become the heart of the team the second they had all seen her and every one of them was as protective of her as if she were their own.

But still there was an ache in Face's chest as he watched Murdock scoop Faith into his arms and then wrap his free arm around Karina's waist to pull her in for a long, possessing kiss that was more than a little show-stopping. He was happy for Murdock, he truly was, but until Murdock had wound up with a loving family of his own, Face had been purposely ignorant of his own desire to have a family. To meet a woman who was interested in more than just his skills in bed. Someone who enjoyed spending time with him as himself and even at his worst. He didn't always wake up looking like a million bucks, but most women were never around long enough to see that and those that had been... Well, that wasn't a path he wanted to traverse right now.

Pulling himself out of his rather depressing thoughts, Face lifted himself out of the deeper end of the pool and walked to the lounge chair where his large white beach towel lay. He grinned as Faith wiggled in Murdock's arms in a demand to be put down on her feet, actually getting pouty when Murdock tried to hold on to her.

"She's certainly perfected that pout of yours, Murdock," Face shouted at him, laughing as Murdock bit his bottom lip to keep from cursing in pain when Faith accidentally head-butted him in the nose. "She is going to get everything she wants out of you and then some."

Murdock rubbed at his sore nose as Faith resumed her butterfly chasing through the backyard. "Yeah. I coulda told ya that from the instant I saw her, Faceman." He wiggled his nose to make sure it wasn't broken. "You comin' in for lunch?"

"Going in for a shower. Hannibal and I have a client to meet with for lunch."

"A for-sure client? One that has passed Hannibal's tests?"

Face couldn't help the deep chuckle that vibrated out of the back of his throat. Even after being pardoned by the military and offered their full-time careers back, the four members of the A-Team had decided in one voice to continue doing their off-the-record jobs. But even though they weren't wanted criminals anymore, Hannibal continued to dress up in disguises to make sure the potential clients were serious about hiring the team and truly had a case-worthy cause. He refused to help the ones who obviously just wanted to pay to spend some time with 'almost celebrities.'

"Yep. He was willing to help the kid as soon he saw what a sorry state he was in, but you know Hannibal. He's not going to admit to capitulating that easily, so he put him through the other tests anyway."

"Do you know his story yet?"

"Nope, but I'll make sure to tell you as soon as we get back."

* * *

Face frowned as he scratched his nails along the cheap wood surface of the table where he, Hannibal, and their client sat in a local hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint. So many thoughts were tumbling through Face's mind right now that it was hard to focus on just one. This kid - this teenage boy who should be skipping school right now and jerking off staring at a Playboy magazine - was, instead, asking for their protection while he schemed up a plan to gain empirical evidence of his father's violent criminal past. He had enough money to pay them for six months worth of protection thanks to the trust fund left him by his maternal grandmother who had passed away less than a year ago. He had no fear of losing it as it had clearly stated in her will that his father was not to be trusted as handler of the fund or in any other way associated with that money.

The kid - Sam, Face reminded himself - was too skinny for a boy who'd been raised in such a life of privilege, which made him doubt the kid's sincerity somewhat in that he had grown up in an affluent lifestyle. His clothes, also, were raggedy and rundown, well-worn through several years of mistreatment. Not something Face could see a richie-rich kid needing.

On the other hand, his manicured nails, clear, smooth skin, and designer backpack confirmed his claims to be true. Not to mention the big fat stack of cash he'd just handed Hannibal not five minutes ago.

So what was bothering him so much? Something seemed off here. Nothing that alerted him to any kind of danger, but something...just something unusual.

The sound of Hannibal's voice jerked Face back to the present and he sat up straighter in his seat, gaze darting between Hannibal and Sam.

"Now, you said you want protection. I'm assuming this means you want to stay with us?"

"I don't have to," Sam clarified, eyes darting all around the room in paranoia. Or nervousness. Either would be understandable in this particular situation. "I can always stay in a hotel. But a hotel doesn't provide the type of security I would need. My father could easily find me there, trace my credit cards, and deal with me the way he deals with anyone who betrays him." He flinched at the thought and seemed to curl up into himself in a moot attempt at blocking out the world.

Hannibal glanced at Face, who shrugged and shuffled the pile of money Hannibal had slid to him.

Returning his gaze to Sam, Hannibal cleared his throat. "All right. Well, let me have a chat with the rest of my boys and we'll see where we can get you set up. You may be able to stay with one of us or we may have to set you up in a hotel with one of us with you at all times."

Sam seemed to grow pale at that idea, but shook his head in agreement anyway.

"Either way, we will get back to you before ten o'clock tonight. The cell phone number you provided us is untraceable, correct?"

"Yeah. I bought it as soon as I left. I still have the phone my dad gave me, but I removed the tracker. I only use it to keep names of contacts and other personal information stored."

"Very good." Hannibal stood to his feet and Face followed suit. "Do you need a lift anywhere?"

"No thanks. I have my own car."

Face frowned. "Can't your dad have the cops put a BOLO out on that or something?"

"No. I sold the car he was familiar with and bought a new one. Different plates, different make, different model. I may be new at this whole 'fugitive' thing, but I'm not stupid."

Face nodded, begrudgingly impressed. "Good to know." He patted the kid on the back and then followed Hannibal out of the restaurant.

* * *

"What's his father's deal?" Murdock asked bluntly as the four of them sat around the kitchen table. A little less than an hour ago, Karina had taken Faith home so she could put her down for a much-needed nap. "Like, what criminal activities is he supposedly into?"

"The kid didn't get into too many details," Hannibal replied, folding his hands up underneath his chin. "But I did some research on my own and, well, it's not pretty. Several years ago he was indicted in Spain for selling underage women to the highest dealers in the black market. He managed to buy his way out of that one easily with the amount of money he has invested all over the world. Rumor has it that he's also been secretly exchanging information with Iran over nuclear weapons and giving them the funds they need to terrorize countries the world over. There hasn't been any solid enough proof of this for the government to step forward and investigate the man."

"But Sam has proof of this?" BA asked.

"He has something. Something that's enough to make him hide away in fear for his life and pay for protection. Also, Giovanni's first wife, Annalise, years ago, 'vanished without a trace'. There was one brave maid who came forward with the claim that she had witnessed Giovanni Gustav beating his wife on more than one occasion and had even heard a bloodcurdling scream on the night that she disappeared. The maid, too, seemed to vanish after giving her statement to the police."

"Jesus," Face murmured.

"About a year ago, Giovanni's oldest child, a daughter, also seemed to go missing. Some speculate that she is still alive out there. That he sold her on the black market as he did with hundreds of other women."

"Maybe if we get Giovanni locked up at last, we can track down Sam's sister for him," Face suggested, hating the thought of an innocent woman, thousands of innocent women, out there being sold and branded like cattle.

"I was thinking the same thing." Hannibal nodded in agreement.

Silence fell around the table as they all gave thought to what taking on this job would entail, the risks they would be taking. After several minutes, Murdock was the first to break the quiet.

"I'll help out as much as I can, bossman, but if we have to go out of country into a war zone or something, I don't think I should..."

"Of course not, Murdock," Hannibal interrupted. "You have a family now. Your priorities lay with them. That's something we can all understand and respect."

"Maybe I should go out and start a family then," Face joked. "Have an excuse to keep from going out and getting killed."

Hannibal groaned. "Face..."

"I'm just saying." Face shrugged, forcing a smile onto his face.

Truth was, he wanted a family. Badly. And the longer he went without one, the less hope he had of it ever becoming a reality.

* * *

"She's finally asleep." Karina crawled onto the bed she shared with Murdock and collapsed on top of his bare chest, smoothing her fingers over his shirtless, hairy pecs. "I can't believe how much energy she had today. I'm exhausted."

Murdock set aside his comic book and hauled her up until they were nose-to-nose. "Just how exhausted are you? Because I was hopin' to get some me time in with you tonight."

Karina giggled, the sound, as always, striking Murdock right in the heart. "Well, I don't know. I didn't see you penciled in on my calendar."

"What?! I woke up at the crack of dawn to make sure I had a spot open for me and you're telling me someone has gone and erased it? Why, I oughta..."

Laughing outright, Karina tugged on the loose ends of Murdock's hair and positioned his head at the perfect angle for her lips. She kissed him thoroughly, tasting and teasing and nipping until he growled and flipped their positions, widening the width of her legs so he could grind his pelvis into hers. She moaned happily and brought her legs up around his waist, bracing her feet on the back of his thighs and teasing them up and down beneath his boxer shorts.

Not wasting a second, Murdock yanked down her panties and thrust two fingers into her tightening channel. She jerked with a cry that was muffled by his mouth, nails clutching on to his arms for support. She met every thrust of his fingers with a buck of her hips and a clenching of her inner muscles, drawing him in deeper.

Karina whined when he finally withdrew his fingers to pull himself out of his own clothing. "I wasn't finished yet," she told him as she leaned up to punishingly bite into his earlobe.

"You still ain't finished, baby." Murdock groaned as her teeth moved from his ear down to the throbbing pulse in his neck, sinking in and marking him. "But we're gonna finish together tonight."

Karina chuckled knowingly. "A bit impatient tonight, are we?"

"You're damn right I am." Murdock promptly flipped her over and instructed her to get to her knees. She did so with eagerness, reaching out to wrap her hands around the wooden post of the headboard. She lowered herself downwards so that her chest brushed against the pillows, her ass dangling up in the air expectantly.

Murdock smoothed his hand over the round firmness of her bottom as he stared, still amazed that this beautiful woman loved him, wanted him. There would not come a day in this lifetime or the next that he would ever stop loving her.

Leaning down, Murdock bit into the meaty portion of Karina's left buttock, making her squeal and swat at him in embarrassment. Almost four years together and she still got shy when he looked at her. It was just the cutest thing.

"Well?" Karina demanded impatiently. "Are you gonna finish up on your own or are we gonna do this together? I have a schedule to keep, you know," she teased. "Many others are signed up after you."

As she knew it would, that pulled a jealous growl out of Murdock and he grabbed her hips forcefully and then slammed home, making the bed squeak and the headboard rattle as it was shoved against the wall.

"Yes," Karina moaned, hands tightening around the headboard. "That's what I want."

"You want this, baby?" Murdock pulled out to the tip and then pushed all the way back in again. "All of this?"

"Yes," she gasped in response, her eyes crossing as the build started to climb high once more. "But harder."

Murdock's grip around her hips became a bruising force as he obeyed her wishes, using almost all his strength to racket her back and forth like a pendulum, her cries ever increasing as he expertly stroked her G-spot.

"So close," she sobbed, her nipples tightening even further as the rest of her body did. "Oh god, James, so close."

"Me too, baby, me too."

One last thrust was all it took for the two of them to climax in unison, their moans of pleasure mingling together as they slowly and exhaustively fell to the mattress in one big pile of boneless limbs.

As they settled in together and turned out the bedside light, Murdock sighed.

"What's wrong?" Karina asked.

"Face. I just...I'm so sad for him."

Understanding flashed through Karina as she gently yanked at a strand of chest hair. "Because he's lonely?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Because, while he's excellent at donning happy personas for the rest of the world, he tends to let down his guard around his close friends. He doesn't really mean to show things like that, but it's clear that he wants what you and I have. It's not something he'll ever admit out loud though. He doesn't want us to think that he wants to need anybody that way. He wants us to go on believing that he wants to be alone, that he doesn't want to depend on anybody."

Murdock ran his hand up and down her back soothingly. "He's too wary, though. Any woman he meets he seduces into bed right away and then gets rid of her. He's afraid of them turning into El Diablo."

Eyebrows furrowing, Karina glanced up at him, but all she could really see was the faint outline of the bottom of his jaw. "Who?"

"I didn't tell you about El Diablo?"

"No."

"Well, settle back, baby, and be ready to wanna go kick some ass."


	2. Chapter 2

Vanilla-scented candles wafted through the room as Samantha Gustav sank lower in the bubble-filled porcelain tub in her temporary hotel room. Her aching muscles instantly relaxed as the warm water flowed over her naked body, draining away most of the tension locked in her bones.

Most, but not all. Her tension would never fully disappear until justice was served. She'd hoped, naively, nearly a year and a half ago, that justice would be swift in coming, but she hadn't taken into account all the men on her father's payroll. Senators, police officers, lawyers, district attorneys, PIs. Even one of Sam's favorite bookstore owners had turned out to be in her father's pocket. She had learned that the hard way when she'd mistakenly begged him for help exposing her father's traitorous and abysmal history.

It hadn't been easy finding someone to help her with a job this critical. She didn't believe there was anyone she could trust.

But then she had heard whispers about the elusive A-Team, prompting her to look them up online herself. A group of soldiers-for-hire who helped the little people for a nominal fee. If it was a truly desperate case, they would act pro bono as they were more interested in doing good for people than actually taking their money. She'd known right away that these were men who would not only get the job done, but who would do it discreetly.

When she'd read about the betrayal of their trust by the government, she'd very nearly changed her mind about seeking them out. Not because she couldn't trust them, but because she believed they wouldn't trust her. She was trying to save their country, their government, from possible nuclear attack in the future. Why would they want to help the very people who were seeking to jail them?

But then she'd thought, 'These are army men. Just because a select few betrayed them doesn't mean they love their country any less. Plus, they were acquitted of all charges years ago anyway.' And so she'd gone after them. It had only taken two months to successfully track them down and pass their tests.

As the water temperature cooled to a lukewarm degree, Sam pulled the plug and made her way out of the tub. She dabbed at the water droplets lingering to her skin with a terrycloth towel and then wrapped the towel around her body. She stepped in front of the sink and frowned at her reflection, at the tangled knots of brown hair flowing down her shoulders. These days, Sam rarely ever went out in public as a woman. It had grown far too dangerous. She was too easily recognizable as Giovanni Gustav's daughter. Another lesson she had learned the hard way.

Tenderly touching the still-healing scab wound on her left shoulder from the last time she had made the mistake of leaving her disguise at home, Sam trembled with a small sigh. Living as another person was taking its toll on her. She had no friends, no social life to think of, no one she could trust.

Her thoughts went back to the earlier meeting with Hannibal Smith and the man he had called Face. They had arrived at the restaurant before her and so she'd had the opportunity to observe them from afar for a few minutes before joining them. 'Face' had certainly been christened with the correct nickname as his beauty, in both face and body, was unrivaled, in her opinion. Everything about him was physically beautiful and she had no doubt he heard that more than once on a daily basis.

Sam wanted to know the real Faceman behind the nickname. That was one of the first thoughts that had filtered through her mind as she'd taken a seat across from him, her heart somersaulting through her chest like it was on steroids. He portrayed an aura of confidence, of knowledge of his own sexuality, but she sensed an underlying fear, an insecurity. Just because he was better-looking than, say, eighty percent of the population didn't mean he couldn't be just as vulnerable about himself. It was just easier to hide when you were so hot.

Those thoughts, of course, had been pushed to the back of her mind as soon as the meeting had officially commenced, but when they got up and walked away... Face sure did make a great view walking away.

Shaking her head, Sam cursed at herself in the mirror. "Don't think about that," she whispered, uncaring about how crazy it was to talk to one's self. "He's someone you hired. You have important things to do and fantasizing about someone you work with is not one of them."

She was just so lonely though. She'd never in her life had any sort of love life or love interests as she was too busy trying to stay out of her father's eye. His reputation and salacious interest in young girls was well-known. She didn't personally believe he was the type to go after his own daughter at least, but she hadn't been willing on taking any chances in the off-chance that she was wrong. Where she should have spent her childhood playing with dolls and making friends with other little girls, she'd spent hiding and learning - from servants who liked to whisper behind closed doors - about her father's proclivities and what it meant to disembowel disloyal men and women.

Sighing, Sam reached for her hairbrush and slowly, and painfully, began to work it through the awful knots of tangles in her hair.

* * *

Keeping her head ducked as she wandered through the semi-crowded sidewalk of downtown Tampa, Sam wrapped her arms around herself as she searched for the local grocery store Hannibal had instructed her to meet him at. When she finally reached it, she shook out her shoulders, lifted her chin high, and entered the store with a confidence she was nowhere near feeling.

The door slammed shut behind Sam, making her jump and her pulse pound in dread. Was this a trap? Had her father gotten to the A-Team before she had? Or had he discovered that she'd hired them and somehow got a message to her from Hannibal's number to trick her into walking into her own doom?

Sam automatically started reaching down into the hidden left pocket of her jeans for her pocket knife; a pocket she'd had sewn in for an extra lump sum of money. She never went anywhere without some sort of weapon at hand. Usually she carried more than one, but today she'd decided that only one was needed as she was meeting up with the men she'd hired to protect her.

She prayed she hadn't made a fatal error.

Out of the darkness, a tall, muscular form drifted out of the light shadows to lock the front door of the store. Sam tensed, arm held out in front of her with the knife clutched tightly in her right hand. She remained in that position until the man stepped beneath the low fluorescent bulbs from above, revealing it to be Face.

Releasing a shaky breath, Sam's shoulders drooped and her arm fell to her side. "You could have warned me you were there," she griped in the male voice she had developed and perfected well before yesterday.

Face's left eyebrow rose in a cocky way that kind of made her want to smack him. Or kiss him and see what that might be like. Either/or would be good for her.

"I thought you saw me in the window when you walked in," he calmly replied. "Not my fault."

Sam scowled as she slipped her knife back into her hidden pocket. "Why were you lurking there anyway? To make sure no one but me came into the store?"

"Precisely. Come on. Hannibal's in the back."

Without another word, Face walked past her towards the back of the store, not paying her another spare glance. Sam glared at the back of his head, silently marveling at his height. It wasn't that he was a freakish height. She just wasn't used to anyone taller than 5'10; 5'11 at most. (She'd felt the same when standing next to Hannibal; more so as he was even taller than Face.) It made her feel vulnerable. She couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing just yet.

Face pushed open the door that led into the storeroom and held it open to allow her to pass through and then he shut and locked that door as well. Without realizing she'd even been doing so, Sam un-tensed and relaxed at the extra precautions they were taking. These men were definitely serious about their job.

Sam sat down in the empty chair next to Hannibal, who didn't wait for Face to join them before speaking.

"We've decided you're going to stay with Face and BA until we've gotten your father out of the picture."

Sam's eyes darted over to Face, who neither looked pleased nor put out at the news that she would be imposing on him and his roommate.

 _'_ _I would hate to play poker with this guy,'_ Sam absently thought to herself.

"Okay," Sam hesitantly replied.

"There are only two bedrooms in their house," Hannibal went on, "so you will have to decide with whom you're going to bunk."

Sam's eyes widened comically and she nearly fell off of her chair in surprise. She couldn't sleep in the same room, the same bed, as these men. There would be no way she could keep her secret if any of them shared even the slightest enclosed space with her.

"I can just sleep on the couch," Sam insisted quickly. "That won't be an issue for me."

"You can't sleep on the couch," Hannibal insisted, though his thoughtful blue eyes had narrowed, watching her with hawk-like perception. No. Studying her. "That's too open a space. Too easy for someone to sneak in and get to you. We - and I'm sure you as well - would feel much better about your safety if you were not only in a secured house with locked doors, but also behind an additionally locked bedroom door."

"BA snores and I sleep naked," Face added, bright eyes gauging her every reaction. "Take your pick."

Sam paled and began to pick at her cuticles in a nervous habit ingrained from childhood. An image briefly flashed through her mind of Face naked, but she quickly banished it from her thoughts and then silently berated herself for it. Of the two options just presented to her, obviously this BA fellow would be the lesser of two evils. But she hadn't met this guy yet and in any case, she would never feel comfortable sharing a bedroom with a man. Even if it was in the interest of her own safety.

"Perhaps one of you could sleep on the couch," Hannibal suggested to Face. "The two of you are trained to wake up to even the most minimal sound. Sam is not. If someone were to break into the house, he might not be aware of it until it was too late. However, if they came in through the living room or the front door, as would be most likely, either of you would be up and snapping their necks in two seconds flat."

Sam cringed at the imagery of his words. It wasn't like she was an innocent when it came to violence, but it wasn't something she was eager to get more of either.

Face's eyes looked to his colonel. "I'll have a talk with BA. Maybe we'll do a rotation thing or something."

Hannibal nodded.

"I don't want to be any bother," Sam spoke up. "I mean, really, I can just continue living out of my hotel room and hire round-the-clock bodyguards."

"Too suspicious," Hannibal said. "I'd thought of that. But if someone was constantly seeing you with men standing at your door, they could unintentionally, or even purposely, tip off your father or one of his henchmen. Not something we want."

Sam licked her dry lips and glanced at the tabletop. "When do you want me to move in?"

"Tonight. As soon as possible. From what I've read, your father does not give up until he has definitive proof of whether or not someone is no longer a threat to him."

"And that proof is in the form of a dead body," Sam finished. "Whether he did the deed or not is irrelevant."

"Exactly. Face will drive you to your hotel, you'll get your things packed, and then you're coming back to his house where you will be moving in. Any questions?"

"Just one. Can I stop for a drink first?"


	3. Chapter 3

Face blew out a deep breath as he watched uninterestedly as Sam carried his small bag plus one larger suitcase into BA's room just a few feet down the hall from Face's own master bedroom. He glanced back at Face once, brows furrowed down in a frown, before entering the room hesitantly and shutting the door behind himself.

Face's own brow shot up into the air. What could Sam possibly have brought with him that he wouldn't want Face to see, some kind of sex magazine? Big fucking deal. Face had them all over the place. Not that he would ever actively brag about that, but still.

Earlier, after they had gotten back from picking up Sam's things from the hotel, Face and Hannibal had sat BA down at the kitchen table and told him the plan. Cool as ice, he'd shrugged and said he didn't mind sleeping on the couch for the time being. It wasn't an uncomfortable couch - Face had made sure of that when he'd bought it - and it gave him easy access to the TV and being the first to decide what shows to watch.

Which was perfect. Face hated the thought of having to give up his bed. The mattress was the best, and certainly the most expensive, he'd ever had in his life and he got the best sleep of his life in it, with or without the added bonus of a sexual conquest. He was a man who enjoyed his luxuries and he wasn't ashamed to admit it. Sure, the team still gibed him about it, but that was what family did. He'd only be offended if anything said of it was said in a mockingly cruel way.

Face barely reacted when the door down the hall opened once more and Sam stepped out, softly shutting it behind himself. He jumped a bit when he saw Face standing there still, watching him.

"You don't literally have to stand guard outside my door," he said with an impertinent roll of his eyes.

"That's not what I was doing," Face replied.

Sam arched an inquisitive eyebrow. "Then why are you still standing there?"

"Maybe I just like leaning."

Sam's lips pinched, as though he were trying to hold in laughter.

 _'_ _Okay,'_ Face reluctantly thought, _'that was really lame.'_

Pushing away from the wall, Face headed for the kitchen. "What do you want for dinner?"

"You cook?" Sam asked, clearly surprised.

"What, I can't be good-looking, smart, good at finances, and know how to cook?" Face asked sarcastically as he pulled a beer from the fridge and popped it open.

"Of course you can." Sam leaned against the counter opposite where Face stood and cocked his hip, almost in a feminine manner. "It's just improbable and I really didn't see you as the type to want to cook. Not so much that you couldn't; just that you wouldn't want to."

"I like feeding my friends."

"Are you so good at it you give them foodgasms?"

Face choked on his beer, several droplets dribbling unattractively out of the sides of his mouth. "What?" he rasped as he grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser behind him to dab at the mess he'd made.

Sam's cheeks had turned a fascinating shade of pink. "I heard it on a cooking show once," he admitted. "That when a chef's food is extremely good, it's like an orgasm in the mouth. Or something like that."

"Um, well, I don't think I'm quite that good a chef. Murdock's cooking has...no. It's more likely to shut you up than to make you moan." He shook his head with a fond chuckle. "So, again I ask, what would you like for dinner?"

Sam shrugged. "Nothing fancy. Chicken is always a winner. So is macaroni. Ooh. And pizza."

"Are you six years old just trying junk food for the first time?" Face asked as he inwardly flinched at the thought of how many calories were in just the foods Sam had just named. If he ate any of that, he'd be taking a long three-hour jog in the morning, followed by another hour in the gym and then half an hour in his homemade sauna.

Sam scowled. "You asked me what I wanted for dinner. What would Your Highness suggest?"

Face laughed at the sarcasm. "I would suggest a tofu wrap and Greek salad."

Sam's face scrunched and he shook his head vehemently.

"But I will make you whatever you want, tonight only, and then after that you have to eat what I want."

"No offense, but pussy is never on my menu."

Having just taken another sip from his beer, Face promptly spewed it all over the counter as uncontrollable laughter nearly cracked his ribs. Who was this kid? Face really liked him.

* * *

Sam sighed as she watched Face wipe down the counters of the left-over grease from the pizza. He really was a beautiful sight to watch. Long, muscular legs; gorgeous biceps straining beneath the sleeves of his blue t-shirt; thick chest that her hands itched to press up against. Not to even mention the breathtaking blue eyes and heart melting smile, complete with dimples. He had really been over-gifted when he had been brought into this world.

Face looked up at that moment and Sam's cheeks heated at having been caught staring. "What?" he asked, throwing the used paper towel into the recyclable bin before stuffing his hands into his pockets, further emphasizing his torso and thighs.

"Nothing," she replied, quickly looking away. "Are you sure BA is okay with sleeping on the couch?"

"Yeah. He's fine with it. But he's not going to be sleeping there tonight. He organized a camp-out in the woods with some kids from the YMCA that he's working with. He's been looking forward to it all month."

 _'_ _Great,'_ Sam thought. _'So it's just me and big ol' handsome man all alone all night long.'_

"That's nice of him," she said lamely.

"Yeah. BA loves kids. You would never know it to look at him, but he really is a big ole softie."

Sam smiled at that. "I kind of got that impression when we told him about..." She instantly frowned, hating to delve back into the subject of the kids her father abused throughout his lifetime.

Face politely continued on as though she hadn't spoken, for which she was grateful. "You should see him with Murdock's little girl. Can't even pretend to say no to her even for her parents' sake. Drives them nuts."

"That would drive me nuts too. She'll expect to be given everything, no questions asked, because of that."

Face sighed, his mind seeming to drift off into a world of its own. Sam wondered what he was thinking about. His next bed partner? The money he would be making off this job? Why the universe was really created in the first place or why people like Giovanni Gustav were brought into existence?

She longed to ask him, but it would probably seem a little odd to have one man ask another one what he was thinking about. Guys didn't do that. Guys didn't care what other guys were thinking about.

But women did. And therein lay the problem.

Blowing out a breath of frustration, Sam pulled open the fridge door and peered inside for something to drink of the alcoholic variety. All she found was beer.

Wrinkling her nose in distaste, Sam pulled back to look up at Face, who had seemed to pull himself back out of his wandering thoughts. "Don't you have anything besides beer to drink?"

Eyebrow lifting, Face asked, "Are you even old enough to drink?"

Sam's eyes narrowed. "I happen to be 27 years old, thank you very much."

"Really? You look more like 17."

Sam's teeth ground together in annoyance. "If one more person..." She drew in a deep breath and then released it. "You didn't answer my question."

"You don't like beer?"

"Hate it. Don't mock me please, but I prefer what you and the others would classify as girlie drinks. They just taste better."

"And you're probably used to the good stuff, right?" Face shot back bitterly, resentment clear in his voice. "Growing up with all that luxurious..."

"I grew up with a dictator!" Sam yelled, furious that her eyes started to water. "All that money isn't worth shit when you have no love or...or...not even a minuscule amount of kindness. Okay? The 'good stuff' you're referring to I didn't even start drinking until I was finally out on my own with my grandmother's trust fund money."

Face shrank back against the counter, properly chagrined. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"No." Sam collapsed after her outburst, withdrawing back into her shell. "I'm...I'm sorry."

Silence fell over the room, a silence that seemed to last an eternity until Face awkwardly cleared his throat.

"Come on. Let's go buy you some proper alcohol. I think we could both use some now."

Nodding, Sam placed her hands in her jeans pockets and followed Face out of the house.

* * *

Face woke up the next day to the sound of the second bathroom shower running and sunlight glaring brightly into his face. What the hell? Why was he on the living room floor? Why wasn't he in his own comfortable bed sleeping off his hangover like a normal person until one in the afternoon?

His eyes fluttered open and the first thing Face saw was the blurred image of Murdock above him, head tilted to the side as he stared down at Face in wonderment. Face groaned and threw his arm over his eyes in an attempt to block out both the sun and his best friend's curious gaze.

"Why you down there, Facey?" Murdock asked. "Too much to drink?"

Face grunted in reply just as the shower turned off. "Is that Sam or BA in the shower?" he asked.

"I think it's Sam. Bosco still hasn't returned from his night with the kids."

Nodding, Face rolled over onto his side and then pushed himself off of the floor until he was resting on his knees, blearily glancing around him. "I really didn't think I drank that much last night."

"Where'd you go?"

"Nowhere. Well, we went to the liquor store to pick up some..."

"Liquor?" Murdock supplied helpfully.

Face glared at him mutinously. How dare he be so chipper while Face wanted to keel over and die. "Yeah. Apparently Sam doesn't like beer."

Murdock nodded understandingly. "Yeah. Karina hates the stuff too."

"Karina's a woman. The general population of women don't like beer."

"Some women do."

"Yeah. But I'm talking as a whole. You go into a restaurant, eight times out of ten you'll see a woman at a table with a martini or a glass of wine. Not a glass or bottle of beer."

"Hmm. That is true."

They grew quiet, listening to the brief sound of a hairdryer followed by a thud and then an extremely loud curse.

"Think he tripped over the cord?" Murdock asked with a snicker.

Face reluctantly joined in. "Sounds that way."

"Are you okay, Facey?"

Face looked up in surprise. "Well, aside from the roiling nausea and the splitting headache, I'll be okay."

"That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"It's just...lately you seem so..."

Face's eyes narrowed. "I seem so what?"

Murdock opened his mouth to explain, then promptly slammed it shut again when the bathroom opened and seconds later Sam walked into the room. He was dressed in a large black t-shirt that seemed to be at least a size too big for him and loose khaki pants. His short brown hair was damp at the ends, but dry throughout the top. Face wondered at that, but didn't dwell on it.

"Ah, you must be Sam." Murdock marched forward, grabbed up Sam's right hand in his own, and shook vigorously. Sam nearly toppled over when he let go of him. "I'm Murdock. Captain Murdock."

"Yeah. Face has told me about you." Sam darted a quick glance over at Face before looking back at Murdock.

"All good things, I assume."

"Of course. I mean, some of them, from an outsider's point of view, seem a little..."

"Crazy?"

Sam smiled. "Yeah. But you sound like a really fun guy to hang out with."

"That I am. And as you have hired us, I am at your service!" Murdock slammed his feet together and saluted him.

"Can you cook?"

Murdock's face lit up excitedly. A new person to test out recipes on! "I sure can!"

"No anti-freeze, Murdock," Face warned him, eyes narrowed. "It won't look good on our resume if we accidentally kill one of our own clients."

Murdock pouted, but quickly cheered again. Face never said...

"And no cleaning supplies or anything that isn't readily edible."

Murdock slouched and grouched his way into the kitchen. "You're no fun."

Sam eyed Face questioningly. "Anti-freeze?"

Face waved off his question. "It's...a long story. Let's just say that Murdock really likes experimenting."

* * *

Sam had to admit that she'd had a healthy dose of fear of tasting Murdock's cooking after Face's little revelation in the living room. But once she'd taken that first bite of his cheesy, pepper-strewn omelet, she couldn't stop herself. She hadn't had a good home-cooked meal in who knew how long. Murdock was obviously a brilliant chef, if not a little...eccentric.

"Wow," Sam exclaimed as she pushed her now empty plate away and sat back in her chair. "You really are a good cook, Murdock."

Murdock beamed, always happy to hear praise for the cooking his mama had spent years teaching him to do. "Thanks. Facey here makes a few decent entrees, but he's really only good at burning things."

Face glared at Murdock while Sam arched her eyebrow at the man in question. "And here was Face last night telling me what a good chef he is."

Murdock chortled. "Nope. Wrongo. The only thing he can really cook well without burning it is Easy Mac."

Sam blushed as she remembered her own failed first attempt at both the regular Kraft mac and cheese and the Easy Mac. She'd only been fifteen and no one had ever taught her how to even boil water, so she hadn't had a clue what she'd been doing. It had been her first attempt, ever, at making something for herself.

"Hey, I can make some decent pancakes," Face shot back, pointing his fork in Murdock's direction. Murdock grabbed his own fork and started a fork dueling battle over the center of the table.

Sam shook her head with a fond laugh. She hadn't known these guys more than a day, but she already knew she would dread the day when they would no longer be a part of her life.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN : I apologize if any portion of this chapter offends anybody. I'm not even sure where half of it came from. Just one of those things where you start writing and whatever comes out, comes out. **

**Again, I do not own the A-Team or any characters or events associated with it.**

* * *

Face ran a weary hand down his face as he eyed the grocery list in his hand. Sam was one finicky eater. And picky to boot. And nearly all of the items he'd requested were sore temptations that Face wasn't sure he would be able to avoid for long and that would contain the worst sort of calories. But, as Sam was paying for it all, Face couldn't complain too much. It wasn't as though Face wouldn't be buying his own usual food stuffs.

It took Face nearly an entire hour, an hour!, to find all of Sam's items before he was able to head back up to the check-out counters. On the way, he managed to ram his cart into another one as he and another person aimed for the same aisle with the shortest line. Seeing as it was a woman - a very attractive woman with long blonde hair, big breasts, and full, lush lips - Face stepped back like a gentleman. Thanking him, she moved forward and he tilted his head to admire the view from behind and grinned.

He struck up a conversation with the woman and upon discovery that she was single - or at least single while talking with him, as they all were - he invited her back to his place for the barbecued lunch Murdock had planned. She immediately agreed without bothering to check her schedule, but told him she would have to stop at her place first.

"Of course," Face replied with that charming conman grin that came so naturally to him these days. "We wouldn't want any of that ice cream to melt."

The woman - Lara, he believed her name was - smiled saucily. "I'd rather actually just douse you in the stuff when we get to my place. Lick it off slowly and then, greedy as I am, slather more on you in a second helping."

Pants growing tight, Face nodded and silently followed her out of the store.

* * *

"What took you so long?" Murdock demanded once Face finally entered the house again nearly two hours after he'd been sent out to the grocery store. His question was promptly answered when a leggy blonde woman followed directly in Face's wake, cheeks flushed and eyes scanning the interior of the house critically. "Oh. I see."

Having just finished washing the remainder of the dishes used at breakfast, Sam stepped out of the kitchen and frowned at the sight of Face pulling a slim - overly tall in her opinion - woman against his side. How long had Face been seeing this woman? Judging by the closed expression on Murdock's face, Sam was going to guess not long.

"Murdock, this is Lara. Lara, this is Murdock. He'll be doing the majority of the barbecuing tonight," Face said.

Pasting on a fake smile, Murdock bowed over-dramatically. "En chante."

Lara, annoyingly, giggled and pressed even tighter into Face's side.

Sam moved further towards them until Face finally spotted her and waved her over. "Sam, this is..."

"Lara," Sam repeated with a fake smile that was all teeth. "Yes, I heard. I'm not deaf, you know."

Face nodded, seemingly unconcerned with her unreasonable attitude.

"We just met at the grocery store," Face explained to Sam and Murdock, both of whom were eyeing Lara distrustfully. Murdock because he didn't trust any woman that came within two feet of his best friend and Sam because...well, she hated to admit it, but she was actually kind of jealous. Which was ridiculous because she had only known Face for little more than a week now.

"And then we went to my apartment and he fucked me good," Lara divulged with that annoying, high-pitched giggle.

Sam's eyes widened and then narrowed. Was she really going to have to sit and eat with this woman for God knew how long? This was not what she had signed up or paid for.

"Really?" Murdock shook his head at Face while Lara wasn't looking at him and then resumed his normal posture and maniacal smile when her glance returned to him.

Sam, for her part, couldn't resist inputting, "I believe the correct phrase would be, 'He fucked me well.'" She tsked at Lara, who looked as confused as a dog trying to figure out how to work a doorknob. "Did your English teachers teach you nothing in school?"

Face's eyes narrowed in warning, but Sam didn't care.

Chortling, Murdock grabbed Sam's elbow and led her to the backyard. "Come on, Sam. You can help me turn the meat."

* * *

As the day droned on, Lara seemed to grow ever increasingly stupid the more she drank. The jokes she made were wildly inappropriate, especially with a two and a half year old sitting at the table, and only a rare few were actually humorous enough to make anyone laugh, even if it was only a pity laugh. Her voice seemed to become shriller as well and every time she opened her mouth, it was all anyone could do to keep from chucking a ripe tomato at her head.

 _'_ _Are these the kinds of women Face likes?'_ Sam thought to herself as she lounged back in a reclining pool chair as the sun slowly faded in the sky. _'Seriously? Dull-witted, dumb, their bodies weighed down by the ridiculous size of their boobs? Face could do so much better. What was he thinking?'_

In all fairness, as she watched him over the rim of her cocktail glass, Sam could tell that Face was having serious second thoughts about having brought Lara over at all. Her constant need to latch on to him was an obvious irritation to him, but she was either too drunk or too clueless to notice.

When Face glanced over her way, Sam smirked and pointedly waggled her fingers at him. He glared in response and looked to be about to head in her direction when Lara tugged on his arm once again to get his attention. He leaned down as she whispered into his ear and then, cheeks splitting with a wide, satisfied grin, Face excused himself from the gathering and led Lara into the house and presumably into his bedroom.

Scowling, Sam stood to her feet to refill her martini glass. Murdock sure did shake a mean martini.

* * *

Back cracking as he stretched out his overused muscles, Face got out of bed and glanced at the back of the head of the sleeping woman from the grocery store. She had seemed so normal and semi-intelligent in the grocery store and in her apartment, but as soon as she'd walked into his house and met his friends, and Sam, she'd turned into the stereotypical dumb blonde. And blondes wondered why they got such a bad rep. Women like Lara were the epitome of the reason for that rep.

Shaking his head at his poor choice - most recent poor choice at any rate - in bed partners, Face shook out the rest of his sore limbs and headed for the ensuite bathroom. He shut and locked the door behind him, not wanting Lara to come bursting in with expectations of fucking in the shower, and started going through his usual morning routine.

Upon exiting his bedroom, he found that Lara was still sleeping, though now she was facing towards the middle of the bed instead of lying stomach-side down. He admired the smooth bare curve of her spine for a moment before shaking his head and leaving the room. Allowing his libido to override his brain is what had led to her being in his home in the first place. As soon as she woke up, he was dropping her back at her place and then he would be free of her once more. Even if he had been interested in taking their acquaintance further than just a few bedroom romps, she'd turned out way too clingy for him.

Entering the kitchen, Face noted that BA was already awake and sitting at the table, sipping at his coffee mug as he skimmed through the local newspaper for any local kids or teenagers that might be in need of a new role model. When he wasn't working on his van, his precious baby, that's what he liked to do in his spare time. Kids were his life. It was just a shame the man hadn't yet had a chance to procreate.

"Sam up yet?" Face asked nonchalantly as he pulled out his own favorite mug and poured himself some coffee. He added just a wee dash of cream and one sugar, stirred it into a suitable mixture, and then took his cup to the table and sat down across from BA.

"I heard him movin' around in there, but he hasn't come out yet." BA set the paper down and glanced up at Face curiously. "He a strange little dude. I swear he got more scents and body lotions than you do, man."

"Hey, if you want to keep up the looks, man, you've got to moisturize." Face leaned forward almost conspiratorially. "You know, I hear that's the secret to how Rob Lowe stays so young-looking. When people aren't looking, every so often he just smears his face with moisturizer. And the years have definitely been good to him."

BA shook his head with a fond snort. "People age how they gonna age. I ain't gonna mess with whatever it is God wants to do to me."

"That's your choice, man. But as long as I'm the procurer of items for this team, I need to stay young for as long as I can."

Before BA could respond to that, his eyes narrowed on movement behind Face's chair. He shook his head in disapproval and then shoved his own chair back, stood, and walked as quickly out of the kitchen as he could. When Face glanced behind himself, it was to see his half-naked fling walk into the kitchen. His eyes automatically flew to her bare legs, but he quickly averted his gaze and shot to his feet when she moved to wrap her arms around his neck.

This didn't bother Lara at all. She simply leaned against the counter across from the table and eyed Face with a look that said she wanted to just eat him up with a spoon. "So, what are your plans for today?" she asked, eyelashes fluttering demurely.

Face blinked. Were these the kinds of women he normally took home? The ones who acted sickly sweet and fluttered their eyelashes and wore a ton shit of make-up and leaned over to ensure he got a good view down her shirt? No wonder he hadn't had the heart to strike up any relationships if these were the kind of women he was settling for. They were all good and fun for awhile, but after reaching a certain age, a man just didn't want that anymore. He wanted a good loyal woman, a funny woman, a smart woman. One who could hold his attention just by holding a conversation with him for longer than an hour that didn't revolve around celebrities or the latest episode of America's Next Top Model.

Feeling unusually old, Face fell back into his seat and ran his hands down his face. He really was getting too old for this shit.

"I think I'm going to just stay in and keep Sam company," Face finally replied, looking up to see what appeared to be a dark shadow fall over Lara's pretty face. He cocked his head to the side, wondering what that was about.

"I see." Her words came out icy and a sudden chill crept down Face's spine. "Are you gay?"

Taken completely aback by the random question, Face burst out in startled laughter. "What? You can't be serious."

"I'm very serious." Arms folding over her ample chest, Lara glared at him. "I have no respect for men who are fags. I especially have no tolerance for fags who like to experiment with women every now and again. You live here alone with two other men, neither of whom is in any kind of relationship with a woman from what I gathered yesterday. So are...you...gay?"

Anger coursed through Face. He could handle the air-headed ditziness and even the tittering laughter, but homophobia? Especially directed at him, even if it wasn't true? How did she even get to that absurd conclusion? Men lived with men all over the place. That didn't make them gay, unless, of course, they were engaging willingly in gay activities.

"What's wrong with being gay?" Face asked in a deadly serious tone of voice just as Sam entered the kitchen.

* * *

Sam paused, the tense atmosphere in the kitchen nearly overwhelming. Face was glaring almost murderously at Lara, who in turn was glaring right back. What had Sam missed, some kind of lovers' quarrel?

And did Face say something about being gay?

"It's not natural," Lara responded, eyes briefly darting over to Sam as she tried to tip-toe past the two of them to get to the fridge. "Only women and men are meant to be together. Or occasionally a woman added to the mix to spice things up."

Face's hands went everywhere, not even knowing where to go with that illogical statement. "What? That's totally a double standard. What if it was a man and a woman and they wanted to bring in another man to spice things up?"

"Nope. Unacceptable."

Amused despite herself, Sam's eyes darted between the two of them as if she were watching a tennis match.

"You haven't answered my question," Lara groused.

Teeth gritting with suppressed outrage, Face's eyes fell on Sam and before she knew what he was about, he wrapped his right arm around her waist and hauled up against the side of his body. She stumbled in surprise and instinctively started fighting against his hold, but he was steadfast and held her still.

"Fine. I'm bisexual, all right?" Again, with no warning whatsoever, Face leaned down and pressed a long, open-mouthed kiss to Sam's lips. She jerked like a fish on dry land, but he didn't pull away until he was sure he had made his point to Lara.

"That's disgusting," Lara commented.

"Well, it's who I am. I think it's better if I take you home now and we never see each other again."

 **AN: Again, I have no idea why Lara suddenly took such a sharp left turn. I knew I wanted her stupid, not because she's blonde, but just because my version of Face seems to attract a lot of those, but I'm not sure where the homophobia came from. I assure you I am in no way homophobic and I apologize for any offense the slurs the character used caused.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AS USUAL, ONLY THE CHARACTER OF SAM, HER FATHER, AND KARINA ARE MINE. I HAVE NO ASSOCIATION WITH THE FILM OR THE TV SERIES.**

* * *

"What the hell?!" Sam cried out as Face strolled calmly back into the house after having relieved himself of the nuisance known as Lara. "What the hell was all that about?!"

Face stared at Sam as though he couldn't imagine what she was on about and then he shrugged. "It pissed me off that Lara seemed to think there was something wrong with open-minded sexuality."

"So you kissed me?! That was your solution?"

"Hey, if BA had still been in the room, I'd have kissed him too. Just to prove a point."

"You are the most irrational man I have ever met. So you don't agree with someone's way of thinking. She's not the only homophobic person in the world. Do you go around kissing...other men every time you hear someone express disgust about homosexuality? What do you do when someone says something racist? I don't think I even want to know."

Face grinned as he pried open an energy bar and took an obnoxious bite out of it. "Why are you so upset? Because maybe you liked me kissing you?"

Unable to stop herself, heat flooded into Sam's cheeks and painted them an embarrassing bright red. "Of course not. I'm upset because you think you had the right to pull a stunt like that and think that I would just be okay with it. That's sexual assault, you know."

Face quirked an eyebrow, but remained silent as he continued to eat his snack.

Huffing out a breath of aggravation, Sam stormed out of the kitchen. She blew past BA who was coming down the hallway from the bathroom and marched right into the room she was using, tempted to slam the door, but not wanting to cause even more of a scene than she already had.

What had she been thinking of, confronting Face like that? Sure, what he did was unusual and most men, she thought, would have had something to say about it. But making as big a deal of it as she had was liable to arouse suspicion and, in fact, Face had directly hit the nail right on the head. She had liked it when he kissed her. She hadn't been expecting it and she had been frightened at first. No one had ever kissed her before. There had been plenty of men, one in particular, who had tried to do so forcibly, but she had managed to dodge and weave those attempts.

The memory of those lips, soft but with a firmness that was undeniably male, pressed against hers made her whole body shudder. The rough stubble against her smooth skin had sent a fissure of pleasant warmth through her body to settle in a tingling throb in her groin area.

This attraction to Face, Sam decided there and then, had to be halted. He was her protector. Someone she had hired to look out for her until justice could be served to her father. Perhaps once all this was over and done with she could seek Face out once more as herself, no disguises, and they could try and start something. If she would even be his type, that is. She doubted that if he met her as a woman he would even look twice at her, so maybe it wouldn't even be worth the bother at all.

"Oh hell," she mumbled, running a hand down her weary face, falling back onto the bed to stare up at the ceiling, determined to calm her raging hormones before she ventured back out into the rest of the house.

* * *

 _Guns, at least sixty of them, crashed onto the kitchen table with a loud slam that made young Sam cringe. Several men, her father's business associates, were gathered around the circular table as Giovanni chomped loudly on an ice cube, something he was wont to do when he was either overly excited about something or anxious. In this case, Sam wasn't quite sure which it was. She would rather it be that he was excited, for in that instance he wouldn't come after her to take out his anger on her. He usually took out his anger on the girls he kept enslaved somewhere in the house, Sam never knew where, but when he was currently on the market for new girls, he took out his anger on his daughter. When he left numerous bruises that were too large to hide, he kept her home with him so as not to arouse any suspicion from her high school teachers._

 _"_ _Is this all?" one of the men, whom Sam had come to regard as Raptor for she didn't know his real name and he reminded her a lot of a raptor - smart, fast, and ruthless with sharp claws - asked Giovanni._

 _"_ _This is just Martell's shipment," Giovanni replied calmly, still chewing on that damnable piece of ice. "Yours will arrive tomorrow and will include four times the number of firearms."_

 _Sam silently wondered why Raptor could possibly need that many guns and then decided she really didn't want to know. Whatever it was for, it certainly wasn't for anything good._

 _Raptor nodded approvingly and the man next to him started to speak._

 _"_ _What about my boys? When do they arrive?"_

 _"_ _Don't get your panties in a twist, Slydell." Giovanni chuckled good-naturedly, but the sound sent a shiver of loathing down Sam's spine. Loathing and a healthy dose of fear. "Your boys arrived just last night and are being thoroughly inspected as we speak. We wouldn't want you receiving any damaged goods, now would we?"_

 _Slydell's lips twisted in the ugliest sneer Sam had ever seen. "Excellent. I expect if there is a damaged and used boy, I can expect a full refund?"_

 _"_ _You would receive a new boy within another week along with a seventy percent discount on your next purchase. I don't leave my customers unsatisfied, you know."_

 _Raptor burst out laughing suddenly. "I doubt you leave anyone unsatisfied, huh, you old horn dog?"_

 _Giovanni chuckled, no longer chewing on the ice. It had probably melted already. Funny the small, insignificant things Sam could sometimes focus on._

 _Another man, younger than the others by about fifteen years, stepped forward. Sam's breath caught, but not in a good way. Devin Mitchell had at first fascinated her because of his good looks. Bright gold hair, hazel eyes, and the body of an Olympic athlete. He was the only good-looking man to ever step foot in her father's home and as a young teenage girl, of course she had been intrigued._

 _Until she discovered he worked for her father and carried out heinous crimes for him. Behind that toothy smile, which now more or less resembled that of a shark's grin, lay a conniving, murderous son a bitch who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted._

 _And to Sam's everlasting horror, he seemed to want her. He had taken one look at her, perched on the edge of the couch watching some TV show or other, and told her sotto voce that she belonged to him. He would have her at all costs._

 _He hadn't stopped pursuing her once. He hadn't yet been successful in his 'courtship,' as he dared to call it, but that was largely in part due to her father constantly sending him out of the country to take care of business, whether it was buying or selling more young girls and boys; buying or trading in weapons dealings; or eliminating problem people, Sam didn't know. She didn't want to know. All of it was a nightmare. Her entire life was a nightmare._

 _As Sam stood up from her crouching position near the kitchen entryway, she accidentally banged her knee ever-so-softly against the wall. It was relatively quiet, but apparently loud enough to alert the men in the kitchen to her presence. They all stepped out, guns and knives drawn, but instantly relaxed upon seeing her. Sam didn't blame them. She knew and they knew that she was no threat to them, much as she longed to be._

 _"_ _Well, well." Devin stepped forward, hazel eyes skimming the loose pajama pants and tee-shirt that Sam wore. However, they weren't as loose as she would hope, as Devin's eyes came to an immediate stop on her thrusting breasts. "If it isn't my favorite little sweetheart." He reached out to stroke his knuckles down her left cheek and she instantly jerked her face away. "Don't be like that, darling. You know this is going to happen."_

 _Giovanni ushered the other two men back into the kitchen with a jerk of his head, leaving Sam to fend for herself with this creep._

 _"_ _I just want to go to bed, Devin," Sam told him, proud of herself that her voice hadn't wavered on a single word._

 _"_ _That's all I want too, darling."_

 _Sam grit her teeth at yet another endearment slipping from those acid lips. "Alone. I have school in the morning, you know. I'm just a sophomore in high school."_

 _"_ _Doesn't matter. I want you."_

 _Without warning, Devin rushed forward, hands cupping Sam's cheeks roughly enough to leave finger bruises, and then he slowly started to lower his head towards hers._

Sam awoke abruptly, sweat drenching through her white tank top and onto the bed sheets. Her heart thundered madly in her chest, but was slowing as the remnants of the memory started to recede. Her hair was matted to her forehead and the nape of her neck and she shuddered at what a mess she was.

Someone suddenly knocked on the door and she jumped, instinctively clutching the comforter to her chest as though she were a child again.

"Sam?" Face's voice echoed into the room and Sam immediately relaxed, tense muscles loosening and blanket slipping through her fingers to fall back to the mattress. "Are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine," she called out. "I just had a bad dream. Did I scream or something?"

"You didn't scream, but you were making a lot of noise. Are you decent? Can I come in?"

Sam's eyes widened anew in panic. Technically, in the clothing sense, she was decent, but she wasn't decent in the fact that she did not have her wig on nor her breasts hidden. If Face walked in now, there would be no hiding who she really was.

"I'm not decent, no. I'll be fine, Face. Thanks for your concern."

Silence met her before Face softly said, "Are you sure?"

Tenderness flooded Sam and she smiled affectionately at the closed door. "I'm sure. It was just a dream. We all have them sometimes."

Sam could have sworn she heard him say, "That's for damn sure," but it was too soft for her to be really sure about that.

"I'll see you in the morning then."

"Okay, Face. Good night."

* * *

Feeling so much more refreshed and clean after the night she'd had, Sam ventured into the kitchen in search of food. She smiled widely at Face in an attempt at pretending she was okay and then grabbed a bowl of Wheaties out of the pantry.

"You okay?" Face asked as he looked up from his newspaper.

"Yeah. Like I said, it was just a dream. I'm sorry I woke you up." She paused and tilted her head thoughtfully. "Did I wake up BA too?"

"Briefly, but when I told him I'd handle it, he went right back to sleep. Man can sleep like the damned sometimes."

"Lucky him," she muttered. "I'd give my left...uh, arm to be able to sleep without worry of any demons coming to plague me."

Face quirked his eyebrow at the brief stutter in her sentence, but didn't comment on it. Instead he asked, "So what was the dream about?"

Sam shrugged as though it weren't all that important. "Just reliving an old memory of my father doing some kind of gun deal with his friends. I'm surprised that dream was enough to scare me, let alone wake me up. Of all the things that man has done, that was one of the least scary moments of my life."

"The brain holds on even to the tiniest fragments." Face stared off at nothing contemplatively. "The worst memories are sometimes easier to bear because you can forget them more easily because you actively know you don't want to remember them. But other ones..."

"Yeah," Sam agreed as she sat down across from Face. "It's amazing what the brain can do, what it can withhold." She blew out a deep breath. "It's also annoying as hell."

* * *

The rest of the day passed by with little activity, save for the endless couple of hours when Face went out into the bright sunshine to swim, his rippling torso gleaming with water droplets and making Sam's mouth itself water at the sight. Fortunately, BA had been out in the garage working on his van at that incriminating time as Sam blatantly sat in front of the window and just ogled Face from afar. It wouldn't do to be caught staring that way at 'another man.'

As Sam stood at the counter drying the last plate that had been left in the sink to be washed, she couldn't help but replay those exquisite moments over and over again in her head. There was really no other word to describe Face. The man was, simply put, exquisite. He knew it, she knew it, his friends knew it, the world knew it. A finer specimen of man Sam had never seen and likely never would, though she believed it would now be more because she was turing Face into the ideal man in her mind.

There was so much more to him, though, that she longed to uncover, aside from the obvious. Facets of his personality she had only glimpsed that she longed to gain more knowledge of. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that in her guise as a man. Oh, she could pick up bits and pieces here and there, like she had that afternoon when he'd declared his hatred of all things kiwi. According to Murdock, Face had had an allergic reaction to a kiwi-scented candle as a kid and now stayed away from anything, food or otherwise, resembling a kiwi.

Why did he fascinate her so? Sam thought she sensed an underlying loneliness in him that matched her own, but she didn't know him well enough to be quite certain of that. Perhaps it was her own loneliness manifesting back at her and she simply wished for Face to have more in common with her, to be more...approachable, she supposed, if she were to ever meet him on the street as herself.

"Ugh," Sam groaned aloud. "It's just a damn crush. Now is not the time or place for such a stupid, juvenile emotion."

"You have a crush on Face, don't you?"

Sam jumped in alarm at the female voice and spun guiltily to find Karina leaning against the doorjamb.

"W-what? Crush on Face?" Sam laughed nervously, though it sounded completely fake even to her own ears. "I'm not gay."

"I know you're not." Karina glanced around, making certain they were the only two within hearing distance. "I also know you're not quite who you say you are. Are you, Samantha?"

Sam's eyes widened and the dish she'd been holding fell from her hands to shatter on the tiled floor.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam stared at Karina in a mix of bafflement, horror, and relief. Relief because someone knew who she was. She could be herself with someone and not have to lie anymore. But with that relief she also realized Karina could, and probably would, reveal her identity to Murdock who would in turn inform the rest of the team, including, and not limited to, Face.

"How..." Sam gulped, fingers twitching in the air for something to grasp, to keep her steady. "How did you know? How long have you known? Do the others know? Are you going to tell them? What..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Karina held up her hands with a laugh, amusement dancing in her pretty silver eyes. "One question at a time, okay?" She gestured to the mess on the floor. "Do you want me to help you clean that up?"

Sam glanced down at the plate she'd broken and cursed. "Shit. I should have been more careful." She bent down under the sink and pulled out the dustpan and the small brush. She swept up all of the glass, carefully ensuring she had gathered up every small piece as people were known to wander barefoot into the room, and then dumped it into the trash. Once that was done, she shakily sat down at the kitchen table. Karina sat down across from her.

Karina started speaking before Sam had a chance to blurt out another dozen questions at light speed. "We've only met a couple of times, I know, but it's been obvious, to me at least, that you're too... Well, I can't think of the right word, but something didn't fit right to me. So I looked up your father online and saw that he only has one publicly acknowledged child: a daughter in her late twenties."

Sam's face paled considerably. How could she have not taken into consideration the probability that they would research her family online and find the truth? Except...wait a minute.

"I told Hannibal and the others that I was my father's bastard and of course I wouldn't be publicly acknowledged," Sam said. She noticed her fingers were trembling, so she folded her hands together.

"Which is believable. I'm sure your father has numerous bastards out there." Karina winced at how callous her statement came out. "I mean, not to sound..."

Sam smiled. "It's okay. They would, technically, be bastards by the definition sense."

"But I studied the pictures of his daughter that had been snapped by random photographers from several years ago and I recognized you. Not immediately. You've disguised yourself pretty damn well. You could easily just pass as your own brother if you had one. But I felt you were one and the same. So I wanted to see. I came here to ask you about it, see if my suspicions were correct." Karina shrugged as though her deduction were no big deal.

Sam bit worriedly down on her bottom lip. "I see."

Fear was ricocheting through Sam like a bullet and leaving just as messy a trail. She should run. Now. Run before the others found out, run before someone accidentally let it slip that Giovanni Gustav's bastard was living in a two-bedroom, two and a half bath house just outside of...

"Breathe," Karina instructed Sam, watching her in concern as she started hyperventilating. "I haven't told James and I don't plan on telling him. Not unless you need me to or it's time to. I really, more than anything, just wanted you to know that you have a friend." Karina placed her hand over Sam's and squeezed, smiling encouragingly. "And you can come talk to me whenever you want to about whatever you want to, even Face."

Sam blushed furiously, causing both of them to burst into laughter.

"Thank you," Sam said gratefully once they both calmed down. "I can't..." She gulped back the tears threatening to burst forth. "I've never had a friend before. I mean, I consider the others...kind of friends, but not...I mean, they're only doing this - letting me live here, 'hanging out with me' - because I'm paying them for it."

"I'm glad to be here for you." Karina squeezed her hand once more and then released it. "You've never had one girl friend?"

"Well, I did once in my senior year in high school, but my dad found out and he... Well, he took a liking to her himself. She came over to spend the night one night and then I never saw her again. I don't know if he killed her or sold her or if she just left town to avoid coming into contact with him again. After that I couldn't risk even trying to become close to anyone, no matter what the true outcome of that visit had been."

Karina winced. "I'm sorry you've had to grow up with a man like that."

"Me too." Sam scratched nervously at her left wrist.

Minutes passed by in companionable silence before Karina cleared her throat and started speaking.

"Did James, or Face, ever tell you how they met me?"

Sam shook her head, eyes wide.

"They saved me, just like they're saving you."

"Really?"

Karina nodded affirmatively. "I had been kidnapped while I was on vacation and given to some dictator down in some South American country. I can't remember the name of it now. To be frank, I don't want to remember."

"Reasonably understandable."

"Usually the man sold whatever American women he kidnapped, but he wanted his turn with me first."

"Oh god."

"I managed to get away, but not without sustaining some serious injuries." Karina reached up and lightly traced the small scar on the right side of her neck. "James found me in the woods, dying, and brought me back to camp. I had no idea who the hell I was for the first couple of months and that almost scared me more than when I got my memories back. I was re-captured and tortured, but my James and the rest of the team saved me before they could kill me. Or rape me."

This time Sam was unable to prevent the tears from leaking out of her eyes and trailing down her cheeks.

"You don't have to hide anything with me, Sam," Karina clarified as she shook off the horrifying memories of her past. "I won't ever blame you for your father's actions or judge you for your lack of action."

Sam winced and looked down at the table.

"See? You blame yourself enough for the rest of us. I could tell you that you had no control over anything, but that's going to be moot because logically you already know that and my words will just go in one ear and out the other. But please do me a favor and don't keep it pent up anymore. I'm here for you now. If you need to talk, to vent, just call me or ask Face or BA to drive you over to my apartment. I could always do with some girl time bonding over martinis and the latest Magic Mike movie. It just isn't the same trying to do that with James. He narrates too much when the men strip and start dancing."

Sam burst into laughter, never more grateful for that ability than at that very moment.

"Thank you," she finally said when she had calmed down. "It'll be nice to have someone to talk to."

Karina smirked suddenly. "Especially about how good Face looks when he's stripped down to nearly nothing, right?"

Heat suffused Sam's cheeks, but she nodded in agreement.

Just then Murdock, Face, and Hannibal entered the kitchen, all three lugging plastic bags of groceries. Murdock was surprised by Karina's presence and when he saw the light tear streaks on her cheeks, he immediately walked over and threaded his fingers through her hair.

"Have you been crying?" he asked, glaring suspiciously at Sam.

"Yeah. I was just regaling Sam with the story of how we met." Karina tugged purposely on Murdock's t-shirt and yanked him down for a long, heady kiss.

Sam tried not to stare at them, but they were quite magnetizing to watch. She wondered what it was like to be kissed in such a way. To be kissed like nothing else mattered in the world, like there was no one else in the world.

"God, get a room already," Face grumbled and then promptly pointed his finger accusingly at the two of them. "And not one of mine. I had to burn my last set of sheets that you two tarnished with your...enthusiasm."

Murdock snorted as he pulled away from Karina to help unload the few groceries they'd bought. "This complaint coming from the man who 'tarnishes' every surface he touches?"

"I haven't done a single thing at your place or at Hannibal's." If he wasn't a grown man, Sam was certain Face would have added, 'So there.'

"Because we're not stupid enough to lend you our keys or even give you our addresses," Hannibal replied. "I remember quite a few on-base days when you would pick the lock to my house and bring your date to my bedroom."

Face shrugged nonchalantly. "It was easier sometimes them thinking I was a higher rank than I was. Women loved that."

"They probably loved your ass better," Karina injected, subtly winking at Sam, who flushed and sank down in her seat. "You do have a hell of an ass, ex-Lieutenant."

"Hey!" Murdock protested.

Face smirked and purposely put said ass on display. "Well, feel free to grab it whenever you want. Women do have to hold on to it a lot while riding my..."

Sam hastily interrupted. "What's with the groceries? Didn't Face just go to the grocery store yesterday?"

"Well, we've decided to have another barbecue and get some more intel from you about your father," Hannibal replied.

"Plus we needed more beer," Murdock added.

"Oh." Sam nervously began to scratch her nails into the surface of the table. "What intel do you need, exactly? I only know a few hidden doors and secret entrances throughout the house, but I also know they come heavily guarded."

Hannibal's brow quirked into the air. "You failed to impart that information before."

Sam flushed. "I wasn't aware it would be useful. I mean, I'm not hiring you to rub him out. Just protect me until I can get every last shred of evidence I need to put him away for good."

"And what, exactly, is the evidence that you don't have that you need?"

Sam glanced around to find everybody staring at her expectantly. "A thumb drive. A thumb drive that one of his co-conspirators has on him at all times. He keeps a record of everyone he does dirty deals with in case they ever try to stab him in the back."

Hannibal nodded. "A plan to strike first. That's incredibly smart of him."

"And incredibly stupid." Sam elaborated. "They also incriminate him in every one of those deals. But I don't care about that or about the other drives connecting to the other men my father has worked with. I just want the one on him."

"So what's the problem?" Face asked. "We slip into this guy's house, steal the thumb drive, give it to the police, bim, bam, boom, you're all free and clear."

Sam snorted. "If it was that easy, Face, I would have done it myself years ago. I don't know the man's real name. He's living under an alias and even my father doesn't know that. I had to dig real deep in the last year to even find out that much. So for all I know, this man, this 'Davis Felton,' could have a timeshare in Maui or reside in Paris. I only ever saw him at my father's house twice in all the years I'd been there. The other meetings took place in public venues."

Hannibal rubbed his index finger across his bottom lip, deep in thought. "Well, everyone has an Achilles heel. And as thorough at protecting himself as it sounds like he's been, this Davis Felton must have some kind of paper trail leading to his true identity. At least we know his fake name. That's a good start."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you that sooner," Sam apologized. "I was more focused on making sure I stay alive to be worrying about what information you needed to have."

"It's all right. But if there's anything more we need to know, let's get it all out tonight."

Sam glanced briefly at Karina and then turned back to Hannibal, nodding in acknowledgment.

"Well, now that that's settled, I'm gonna go start on the steaks." Murdock flounced right out of the house.


	7. Chapter 7

"Where's Faith?" Face asked Murdock as he flipped over Sam's steak. Apparently he liked his rare.

"With Karina's parents. They came down for the weekend."

Face glanced over at the back porch, watching for a moment Sam and Karina lounging on the porch swing, talking animatedly.

He turned back to Murdock. "Since when are Karina and Sam bosom buddies?"

Murdock shrugged. "Since today I guess. Medium-rare for you, right?"

"Murdock, buddy, we've been friends for nearly thirteen years. You know exactly how I like my meat."

Murdock smirked, but refrained from commenting on the not-so-subtle innuendo.

"It doesn't bother you?" Face asked, taking a long swig of his beer. "Seeing Karina being so friendly with another guy?"

"I trust Karina." Murdock glanced back at the two people in question. "And if she was gonna cheat on me, she would go for someone who wasn't quite so scrawny."

"Like me?"

Murdock smacked Face's left arm with the spatula. "Nah. She knows your habits and love life too well now to want any of that."

Face spluttered indignantly. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, you know." Murdock grinned teasingly at his best friend. "That there's not a woman in a twelve-mile radius you haven't stuck your dick in."

"That is so not true." Face huffed and childishly crossed his arms over his chest. "I mean, Karina's within a twelve-mile radius and I've certainly never stuck my dick in her."

"That's true. I guess you got me there." Murdock's smile faded as he looked up at Face in all seriousness. "Facey, I know you're sad."

Face jerked as if Murdock had just poked him with a cattle prod. "What?" He laughed, but the sound was forced and unrealistic. Especially to a man who had heard the conman genuinely laugh thousands of times over the last decade. "Man, you're crazy."

"I may be crazy, but I'm also observant." Murdock grew quiet as he removed Sam's steak from the grill and placed it on a paper plate nearby. "You want to have a family someday, don't you, Face?"

Face stared sullenly down at his half-empty beer bottle. "Of course I do. What man doesn't?"

Murdock set down the spatula and turned to face him fully, leaning his hip against the side of the silver grill. "So what's stopping you?"

"Well, Murdock, I kind of need a woman for the whole family thing. Science hasn't yet learned how to enable men to get pregnant themselves." His face wrinkled in thought. "Not that I would ever want to be pregnant. And how weird would it be if science was not only able to figure out a way to get men pregnant, but a way for a man to get himself pregnant? Whoa. Heavy stuff, man."

"Okay. You've had enough." Murdock took Face's beer bottle and dumped the rest of its contents onto the grass.

"Hey!"

"Facey, I'm trying to be serious here."

Face glared at him, still upset about the loss of alcohol.

"You're the only one standing in your way, Face. I know commitment is a scary thing to think about or face, but trust me when I say it's well worth it." Murdock glanced longingly at Karina, who smiled and waved at him. "And you can get any woman you want, but you keep bringing home these vapid, shallow women who are obviously only meant to be one-night stands and nothing more. You'll never find love that way."

Sighing, Face turned and rested his forearms over the black-iron gate that guarded the pool and the grill. "The first girl I ever loved decided she didn't want me and left."

"No, no, no. That's Charissa you're thinking of. Charissa was the second girl who..."

Face glowered at him.

"Leslie didn't just 'decide she didn't want you and left.' Okay? We met her on that one mission we did, remember? She loved you, but her calling was to be a nun, to help others and remain chaste for all of her days."

"I would have stayed with her anyway. I would have done anything to be with her."

"I know, Facey, but eventually that would have taken its toll on you. 'Cause let's face it. A life of celibacy is not for you."

Face chuckled at that. "I really can't argue with that."

"And you can't use the argument you've used on plenty of women with me."

Face's brows furrowed in confusion. "What argument?"

"That you're incapable of loving anyone. Leslie is a good case in point. She wasn't the one you were meant to love for your whole life, but she was a good starting off point."

"I guess."

"Charissa was just the devil."

Face laughed at Murdock's blunt, unapologetic, matter-of-fact statement. "Yeah. You never liked her from the beginning, did you, Murdock?"

"She would have been all right as one of your short flings, but I had never pegged her as the serious settling-down type. I would have warned you of that, but I didn't think you would be considering settling down with anyone at that point, let alone the devil in disguise."

"You and your devil analogies." He grew quiet again as he started to drift back into the past. "She could have been nicer about the rejection."

"Don't worry. As soon as I heard about what she said to you, I sent her off with a nice box of laxative-laden chocolate chip cookies." Murdock leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "I heard tell from one of her teammates that she ate every last one of them on the plane and it was not pretty."

Face burst out laughing at that. "I wish you had told me that sooner."

"You were drunk all the time then. One step at a time."

The melancholy mood quickly dissipated as Murdock shut off the grill and turned to face the house. "Steaks are finished! Let's dig in!"

* * *

Later that night, once everybody had left and those living, or temporarily residing, in the house were in bed, Face leaned back against the porch swing, beer in hand as he stared out at what he could see of the twinkling stars. Thoughts swirled absently through his mind, but he could only focus on the conversation he'd had with Murdock. It wasn't the first time he'd brought the subject up, but he'd been increasingly adamant about Face starting a family of his own ever since he'd moved in with Karina.

Face sighed and chugged at the remainder of his beer. For some reason, Charissa Sosa was on his mind. No doubt due to the fact that she'd been mentioned earlier in the day. He rarely ever allowed himself to think of her because the memories, though old, were still quite painful to rehash.

He had loved her. There had been no question in his mind that he had loved her with every cell in his body. When she'd left him, it had felt like he had taken a literal knife to the heart it had hurt so badly. Even the he rest of the team were afraid he'd never recover from it. Hell, Face had worried about that too, but eventually it had become less of a pain and more of a distant memory.

And then she'd waltzed back into his life as though what they'd had hadn't been anything special, as though he had been just another man in a long string of men she'd led to fall in love with her before tearing their hearts from their chests. She'd been cruel and it had been easy to hate her. So fucking easy. Until she'd helped them escape. She had fucking helped them escape, risked her own career and good name, to keep them out of prison.

Face had thought that was it. Charissa was finally coming to terms with how she felt about him. They would get back together, move in together, get married, pop out a few kids together, and then die, happily knowing they'd found an elusive love that people all over the world sought with no success every day. And he'd looked forward to all of that. He'd let himself foolishly believe, foolishly hope...

"Fuck her," Face mumbled as he tossed his empty beer bottle into the recycling bin next to the swing. "She's nothing. She has no control over my life."

Which obviously wasn't true if he was sitting in the dark drinking and reflecting on what could have been. He'd let her break his heart not once but twice and now he was too scared to try again. Like everyone before her, she'd left him when he needed her the most. And now the thought of giving someone else that power...

"No one would want me anyway," Face grumbled drunkenly, jumping in alarm when the sliding glass door just to the left of him slid open, the noise shattering the silence of the night around him.

"Face?" Sam stepped out, huddled in a large gray t-shirt and loose-fitting sweats. "Are you okay?"

Face waved off his concern. "I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Well, you must have one hell of a headache then. Need some aspirin?"

"Fuck you." But Face snorted in amusement.

Sam cautiously moved towards him, gaze darting to the swing cushion he rested on.

Sighing, Face scooted to the right and then patted the cushion, purposely stopping the swing so he could sit down.

"What's got you out here thinking so seriously?" Sam asked, folding his thin legs up underneath his body as Face resumed the swing's forward motion of movement.

"What makes you think I'm thinking about something serious?"

"Because if it wasn't serious you wouldn't be out here sulking in the darkness. You'd be in your room or on the couch or...or somewhere."

"I was just thinking about what Murdock and I were discussing earlier."

"What was that?"

Face quirked his brow at the inquisitive younger man. "Have to know everything, don't you?"

Sam shrugged nonchalantly. "No. A brief synapsis is all I really need." He grinned widely, revealing a small dimple in his left cheek.

Something in Face twisted at the sight and he mentally shook his head.

 _'_ _What the hell was that?'_ he thought, desperately wishing he had another beer in hand. _'I'm so lonely I'm going to start lusting after guys now? Sure, I kissed Sam once before, but that was to make a point. Not because I actually want him. I don't want any man.'_

"Face?" Sam waved his hand in front of Face's face. "Where'd you go?"

Face shook his head. "Sorry. Thoughts wandered." Did they ever.

* * *

Sam eyed Face in concern. He was acting odd all of a sudden, like Sam had just contracted some form of airborne HIV virus out of the blue.

"So what were you and Murdock talking about?" she pressed, hoping the erratic pounding of her heart would slow once Face started talking.

"He thinks I need to settle down."

Sam's heart nearly imploded right through her chest.

"Settle down? As in get married?"

"Not necessarily get married, but find the right girl and just stick to that one girl. And, honestly, that's all I really want too."

"But?"

"But I don't know if there's any girl out there who would want me for...well, for me."

Sam's lips parted in surprise. She had never seen Face as anything but confident. He could get every woman in the world into his bed at once, probably, and he damn well knew it. She'd thought all of his boasting of conquests was to let people know just how wanted he was, but perhaps it had all been a cover-up of his own insecurity. Just because he was gorgeous and portrayed an outward persona of self-confidence didn't mean he felt that way inside.

"And what the hell is so wrong with you?" Sam demanded. "If a woman only wants you for your looks - which, let's admit it, would be a perk to dating you - but isn't willing to accept your flaws, which you have many of -"

"Thanks a lot," Face grumbled good-naturedly.

"- then you don't want that girl anyway. I mean, I know I'm a guy and we've only known each other, what, three weeks now?"

Face nodded.

"But you seem like a decent guy. You're funny, you're gross -"

"What? How am I gross?"

"All men are gross at some point. The farting contest you had with Murdock last week is a case in point."

"Oh yeah." He grinned sheepishly.

"My grandfather used to tell me to make a list of all desirable traits I would want in a partner," Sam confessed. "And if I met a person that didn't meet even one of those traits, then they're not the one for me."

"Your grandfather?"

"Yeah. On my father's side. He had no idea the kind of life his son lives. It would have killed him sooner if he'd known. He was a pastor in a really small town in Louisiana."

"I'm sorry about his loss."

Sam shrugged, though the pain of her father refusing to allow her to attend his funeral still stung deeply. "It happens. Circle of life."

Silence fell between them. Sam twisted her fingers together, feeling awkward. She wanted to launch herself at Face and both confess that she wasn't actually a man and that Face was more than worthy of being loved, but she kept herself still. Instead, betraying her own heart in some way, she told Face, "Why don't you start going on dates without any intention of sleeping with any of them? At least not immediately. Get to know them a little. It's easier to fall in love when you haven't already explored your chemistry in bed first."

Face nodded, thinking over the suggestion very seriously. "You know, you're right. I'm getting too old to be constantly thinking with my dick anyway. Besides, doing that has gotten me into more trouble than it has brought me pleasure."

Sam smirked. "Murdock told me about the tire incident in Mexico."

Face scowled. "He wasn't even there when it happened!"

"No, but he's heard plenty about it from Hannibal and BA. Hannibal filled me in on what Murdock couldn't remember."

"Women were trouble in those days."

"No. Just you were trouble. I also heard that you once had to marry a woman to get her away from the clutches of her evil fiancé and then after you got the marriage annulled, you asked her out."

Face snorted in amusement. "Imagine if I had just stayed married to Joan." His voice trailed off into a whisper. "Maybe I'd be happy with kids of my own right now."

Sam's heart lurched painfully in her chest. If he had stayed married...

"I can't see you married to a woman named Joan," Sam put out, trying to gloss over the idea of Face being married. "It's kind of an old woman's name."

Snorting, Face agreed.

"I could see you with a Felicia maybe," she continued, tapping her chin thoughtfully. Then she grinned wickedly. "What if you fall in love with a woman who's only, like, 4'8? The two of you would look so silly together."

Face laughed and smacked her in the face with one of the throw pillows resting on the swing. "There's nothing wrong with a short person."

"I know. I just like teasing you." She tilted her head to the side. "It's really easy to tease you. I can see why the others enjoy it so much."

"You're a pain in the ass."

"No. You know what's a pain in the ass? Whatever you stick up it. And on that weird note, I'm going back to bed. I suggest you do the same."


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey all, sorry it's taken me so long to update. Life happening along with writer's block. Grr. So annoying. Anyway, I'm putting up two chapters since this one came out shorter than I had thought it would.**

 **As always, none of the characters or any movie elements belong to me except for Samantha and her crummy father. Reviews are always, always appreciated. :)**

* * *

Combing her fingers through her hair, Sam sighed as she glared at her reflection in the mirror. It was just one of those days. She'd woken up groggy and disoriented and would have gladly spent all day in bed - or at the very least until noon in bed - but Hannibal had nearly given her a heart attack pounding on her door at promptly nine o'clock, insisting that they had retrieved some information on Davis Felton's whereabouts. They just needed Sam to confirm that it was the correct man and then they would start working on a plan to search for that thumb drive.

Nerves plagued Sam as she stared gloomily at herself. While she wanted this all over with, the thought of facing any of her father's acquaintances sent chills up her spine.

Sam jumped at the abrupt bang on the bathroom door.

"Sam," Hannibal's voice bellowed into the room, "we have to be going. We're supposed to meet Felton's neighbor at precisely 10:30 which is in precisely twenty minutes. I don't tolerate tardiness. Let's get moving."

Beneath his breath Hannibal grumbled, "Boy is as bad as Face."

Scowling at the door, Sam quickly tied her hair up into a bun on the top of her head, tied so tightly it felt like the entirety of the skin of her face was being pulled back, and then grabbed her boy-cut style brown wig off the counter and set it in place over her hair. Once every strand was perfectly in place, Sam pulled on her sports bra which flattened her breasts just enough that they weren't ever noticeable in the baggy t-shirts she wore, and snapped in the buckle of the belt in her equally baggy blue jeans.

"I am not as bad as Face," she mumbled to herself as she left the bathroom, glaring at the back of Hannibal's head when she wandered into the living room.

"About time," Hannibal said. "Let's get in the van. The place we're going is only ten minutes away, but we don't know what the traffic is like."

"What if he recognizes me?" Sam asked as they all filed out of the house together and into BA's black-and-red van. She knew it wasn't a likely possibility as they weren't actually speaking to Davis Felton himself and even if they were, he'd only seen her a handful of times. Being in disguise as she was, she doubted he would have thought her anything other than the man she impersonated.

"You're not going inside," Hannibal replied from the front passenger seat as BA turned the ignition over and reversed out of the driveway. "We aren't going to take that risk, minimal as it may be. You and Face will listen and watch in the van."

Sam glanced at Face out of the corner of her eye and her heart flipped in her chest. Alone with Face yet again? She couldn't think of a worse form of torture. Well, actually, that wasn't true, but it still wasn't going to be easy to sit next to him and not be able to touch him.

* * *

Marcus Middleton was a small black man with a limp in his left leg that Hannibal noticed with great interest, silently wondering if Davis Felton had delivered that injury to the man himself or if he had acquired it in some other incident. Davis Felton, much like Sam's own father Giovanni, wasn't shy about using excessive force or brutality for his own benefit. If he'd ever suspected his neighbor of suspecting anything was amiss about him or his false life story, he certainly wouldn't have been hesitant to silence the man by any means necessary.

"Come in," Marcus said in a low voice that was raspy from weeks of nonuse. He didn't leave his abode much these days as he was getting up there in years. What he couldn't have personally delivered to him he would pay others to get for him.

"Thank you." Hannibal and BA stepped through the threshold of the man's front door, glancing around conspicuously. The furnishings were sparse, but there was a high-def TV mounted to the wall across from the well-worn upholstered couch with foot recliner in one end. A few empty beer cans lay scattered around that section of the couch, but otherwise the place was relatively clean.

"Can I get y'all anything to drink?" Marcus asked, gesturing towards the kitchen with the black cane he carried with him.

Both Hannibal and BA politely declined and then followed him into the living room.

* * *

"I don't recognize that man," Sam whispered in a hushed voice to Face, who rolled his eyes.

"You know, he can't hear us," he said. "You don't have to whisper."

"Oh. Right."

"So you never met him or even saw him before?"

Sam shook his head. "No. But then, like I said, my dad never did business in areas he wasn't familiar with or hadn't vetted himself."

"I wouldn't either if I were in the business he is." Face adjusted one of the knobs connected to the TV monitor and turned up the volume. Now they could hear even the cockroaches mating in the rotting plaster walls of the man's apartment. They listened intently to what the man could remember witnessing of Davis Felton, but unfortunately it wasn't much.

Sam slumped back against his seat with a huff of annoyance. "Well, that didn't tell us anything we didn't already know."

Face raised his hand as if to placate a small child. "Hey, at least we know now one of the man's residences. We're going to break in tonight and search for that thumb drive. Even if it's not there..."

"It won't be," Sam grumbled. "Life isn't easy like that."

Face continued on as though he hadn't been interrupted. "Even if it's not, that doesn't mean the man won't feel cornered by someone or something down the road. Maybe he'll stop and make use of this place again." His eyes narrowed on the crumbling bricks of the building and the flickering streetlights that lined the roads. "Although I can't imagine why he would. Probably hasn't been here in years."

"I feel like I've been here before." Sam glanced around and shivered, so he wrapped his arms around his midriff. "I can't recall when or why, but I know I didn't like it."

"Yeah. This place is creepy. And the sun's still out. I don't even want to imagine the kind of horror that goes on when the sun goes down."

* * *

"Any luck?" Sam asked Hannibal as he and BA climbed into the van an hour later.

"Said he saw someone about Felton's height and build two weeks ago," Hannibal replied as BA started up the van and pulled out onto the empty street. "Not in the apartment building, but coming out of an abandoned delicatessen two blocks from the grocery store Mr. Middleton uses."

"Hmm." Sam tapped her index finger against her chin thoughtfully. "I know one man my dad used to associate with who owned a deli. I only know of him because he would always bring several bagfuls of sandwiches to any meeting with Giovanni whenever he was involved. But he died nearly four years ago."

"How did he die?"

"I'm not sure. I never looked into it. I just remember one guy asking about the sandwiches because they were really good sandwiches and Giovanni just muttered something about him being dead. I didn't hear any more about it after that."

"Meaning your father more than likely had a hand in his death."

"Yeah. Wouldn't surprise me. Nothing does anymore." Sam slouched against her seat and tried not to pout as she glared out the window. This was not where she'd ever envisioned her life going. Hiding in disguise, working with men to bring her father to justice so she could eventually have her own life free of impending danger, falling in love with one of said men...

 _'_ _Whoa, whoa,'_ Sam thought hastily, quickly backtracking her wayward inner thoughts. _'I like Face a lot, sure, but I am not falling in love with him. Not that he's not lovable. I just don't have the capacity for those types of emotions and even if I did, now is not the ideal time or situation to...'_

Sam jumped when a hand landed on her left shoulder and squeezed comfortingly. When she looked up, her pulse raced as her eyes met Face's.

"It'll get better," he said gently, a small smile easing up the corners of his mouth, hinting at those cute dimples that always turned her knees to jello. "We won't let your father control your life forever."

 _'_ _Okay. So I'm doomed. I'm falling in love with him.'_


	9. Chapter 9

Trying not to appear too hunched over as pain swamped her, Sam all but waddled into the kitchen in search of ibuprofen. Though acting as a man was easy to do, mostly, and on good days she could actually forget that she was pretending, she could not always ignore that she was, in fact, a woman. With womanly issues. Womanly issues that had sent her scrambling to her room in search of tampons and the special underwear she only wore for that very special visitor that came once a month. Sometimes it felt like it came twice a month and she loathed those times more than any other.

Unfortunately, Sam hadn't packed nearly enough supplies for such moments and would need to take a trip to the store just as soon as she was able to relieve these cramps just the minimal amount. It was never easy. It always felt like someone was ripping out her womb and then painfully twisting it right back in.

"Hey," Murdock greeted her cheerfully as she walked into the kitchen.

Sam just grunted back at him and instantly went to the drawer directly next to the fridge. She pulled out the ibuprofen bottle, dumped four pills into her palms, and then set it back in the drawer.

Murdock frowned as Sam pulled open the fridge door for a bottle of water, watching as she downed all four pills at once. "Ain't that a bit too many?" he chided.

"Not at all," she replied. "If you were in this much pain..."

"What'd you do, stub your toe or something?"

Sam mentally cursed as she tried to think up a good excuse for being in such intense pain, but she simply didn't have the energy. "Something like that."

Katrina entered the room then. "Hey Sam!" Her eyes narrowed as she peered into Sam's face, trying to read the wincing of the other woman.

"Should I be concerned that Sam just downed four pain killers?" Murdock asked Karina conversationally.

"What for?" she asked.

Murdock shrugged. "He wouldn't say."

Realization dawned on Karina's face and she smiled in empathy. "Ah. No. I wouldn't worry about it, baby. Sam probably really needs it. I'm sure he knows not to take anymore or we might have to whisk him off to the hospital."

Sam smiled gratefully at Karina. "I'm going to need to run to the store in a few minutes," she informed them. "It shouldn't take me long."

"Oh, I'll go with you," Murdock declared. "I been needin' to pick up some more pancake mix. These boys go through that stuff like it's water."

Sam's face paled. How would she buy her stuff without Murdock noticing? Her jig would most certainly be up if he saw those items in the buggy.

"I'll go too," Karina announced. "I need some feminine supplies. I'm running pretty low."

Murdock's nose crinkled and he turned away uncomfortably.

Sam mouthed a silent thank you and nearly threw herself at Karina in gratitude.

* * *

"Are you ever going to tell them the truth?" Karina asked as she and Sam wandered down the feminine products aisle at the grocery store. Karina had managed to convince Murdock to stay behind as she could grab the pancake mix, and whatever else he needed, along the way.

"Yeah," Sam replied almost hesitantly, her gaze focused on the items in front of her and not the woman walking next to her. "When the job is over."

Karina frowned noticeably. "Why wait so long? Haven't they proven that you can trust them?"

"Yes." Sam grabbed what she needed and threw it into the basket on her arm. "But I..." She sighed and scratched at her left bicep. "I don't know. I'm just not used to sharing my secret with anyone. What if they completely mistrust or even dislike me once they find out?"

Karina shook her head vehemently. "That wouldn't happen. I know these guys. They would completely understand your need and your desire for anonymity."

"This isn't just anonymity though. I'm completely outright lying to them."

"They'd still understand. Your father is a monster, plain and simple. From what you've told us, and me in private, it doesn't sound like he has any intention of trying to, uh, make you his..."

"Concubine?" Sam threw in softly.

"Right. Something like that. But you can never be too careful. Concealing your gender is a self-protection thing and they will get that. In fact, if you hadn't already been doing that yourself, they'd probably be suggesting it themselves."

"Well, give me some time to think about it. Maybe I'll 'come out' to them one person at a time. Might be easier that way." She tossed Karina a look out of the corner of her eye and smiled. "Though I'll probably save Face for last."

* * *

They arrived at Karina's apartment fifteen minutes later. Sam grabbed her plastic bag of supplies and rushed to the bathroom. Once inside, she removed her T-shirt to pull off her aggravating sports bra, which was starting to itch like crazy. As she was pulling the stretchy material taut, searching for the small annoyance that had been bothering her all day, the bathroom door squeaked open and was shortly followed by a distinct squeal of surprise. A male squeal of surprise.

Sam was too shocked for anything to escape her, even a gasp, at the sight of Murdock standing in the bathroom doorway, eyes wide and jaw agape. His eyes traveled from her face down to her chest seconds before he threw his right hand over his eyes and backed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh my god." Sam belatedly pressed her arms to her chest and sank down onto the closed toilet lid, cheeks flushed with embarrassment and the fear that now all would be revealed far sooner than she had anticipated. Why hadn't she locked the door? Why hadn't Karina told her Murdock was coming home?

None of that mattered now. What mattered was what Murdock was going to do about his newfound knowledge.

Finishing up in the bathroom, and having reassembled her bra and shirt, Sam exited the bathroom slowly, wanting to prolong the inevitable confrontation as long as possible. She slunk towards the living room, where she heard low voices murmuring, probably about her. The voices ceased speaking as soon as she stopped next to the side table near the couch. She couldn't help noticing that Murdock's eyes darted continuously around the apartment, not able to look at her even a little bit.

Karina was the first to break the silence. "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag here," she said with a light, uncomfortable chuckle.

"You can't tell the rest of the team," Sam blurted, her cheeks flushing in mortification when Murdock's darting gaze finally fell on her face. "I mean, I'm not trying to deceive anyone, but I've been disguised this way for nearly two years now. I know you guys aren't gossips or any silly such thing, but I can't take the risk. If Giovanni gets wind of any strange, lone female hiring the A-Team..."

Murdock lifted his hand to silence her and she immediately shut up. "I ain't gonna tell anyone. Last thing we need is Face knowing there's an attractive and accessible woman living in his house."

Sam blushed at the, most likely, unintended compliment.

"I really don't need any explanation," he continued, smiling kindly. "You're afraid for your life and were trying to reduce the chances of your being recognized by someone. I understand that."

Relief spread through Sam and she felt her shoulders sag with it. "When I first left my father's house a year and a half ago, my face was splashed all over the news for a week. According to his statements, he had sent his grown daughter - me of course - off on a long overdue college graduation vacation to Panama - why he chose that country of origin I have no clue - and I never returned the day I was supposed to. I can't even explain how pissed I was when I saw that."

"Is that when you started dressing, acting, and talkin' like a man? Or were you doing that as soon as you left the house?"

"I had plans to do that anyway, but that false missing person's claim forced me to enact the disguise sooner than I'd planned." Sam plopped down on the empty armchair adjacent to the couch. "I really appreciate your discretion with this."

"No problem. I mean, if they was to come out and directly ask me if you're a woman, I'm not going to lie to them. But unless they happen to stumble in on you like I accidentally did..." Murdock smiled sheepishly and Sam found it utterly adorable. "...I don't see that being a question that's just going to suddenly pop up."

Practically euphoric, Sam leaped across the small space that separated them and threw her arms around Murdock's neck. "Thank you," she whispered against his ear before pulling back and chastely kissing his cheek. Then she stood, grabbed the remainder of her purchases, and headed for the front door. "Guess I'll be getting back now. Thanks for everything!"

* * *

Murdock gaped at the now closed front door and then turned to face Karina. "Well, at least now I know why you and Sam started getting so chummy."

Karina snorted in amusement and scooted closer to Murdock, purposely placing her right hand high up on his thigh. "Aw, baby, you didn't think I was starting to crush on another man, did you? For me, no other men even exist."

Murdock's brow quirked.

"Okay. That was a stupid thing to say. You know what I mean though." Swinging her left leg around, Karina straddled Murdock's lap and forcefully shoved him against the back of the couch. Laughing, Murdock pressed his palms to the small of her back to hold her in place. "Besides, no other man would even want me right now."

Murdock rolled his eyes. "Baby, of course they would. Stop being so..."

Karina shushed him by placing her left hand over his mouth. He licked her palm, sending an electric spark of arousal down into her groin, and she removed it. "I meant because I'm in the family way." Her eyes widened in an effort to emphasize her point.

It took Murdock a moment longer than he cared to admit to realize what she was saying. As soon as he did, his face lit up and he yanked her closer. "Really? Really really?"

Laughing, Karina brushed her hands through his hair and tugged his face close for a brief kiss. "Really really."

"I'll get to be here for it this time!" Shooting to his feet, keeping Karina's legs wrapped firmly around his waist, Murdock spun around a couple of times in joy. "I'll get to see you get sick, watch you gain weight..."

"Hey!"

"In that good way. The cute baby-bump way. I missed that last time." He leaned down and nuzzled her nose. "I want to see the glow all mothers get and I want to run around like a madman trying to find all the crazy foods you'll get a hankerin' for."

Karina laughed, love blossoming deeply in her chest, which was nothing new. "It won't be anything crazy. I never went crazy with Faith."

"What did you crave with her?"

"In the beginning, nothing but onions. I'd never even liked onions before she came along. And then towards the end I only wanted cheeseburgers and ice cream. The typical kind of stuff."

"Well, whatever you want, it's my job to procure it." Murdock pressed her gently up against the wall and began to devour her, hunger making his pants grow tight. "For now, let's go celebrate in the bedroom. I'll be very, very gentle. I promise."

As Murdock carried her down the hallway, Karina whispered into his ear, "Not too gentle. I'm still flat enough that you can fuck me through the walls and the floor if you want to."

Growling, Murdock sped up his pace and then slammed the bedroom door in their wake.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello! Sorry it's been so long. I've had this and the next chapter finished for awhile, just haven't gotten around to posting them. Busy life,busy life. As usual, none of the characters save for Sam belong to me and I make no money writing any of this. This is pure fluff.**

It wasn't easy looking at Murdock the next day when they all went out for a bite to eat. Sam was acutely aware of his passing glances, but she could not for the life of her make herself meet his eyes. She tried to focus on the conversations going on around her, but she was so jumpy she was surprised no one made any comment on her behavior.

It wasn't until Face made a passing comment on a beautiful woman that Sam actually started paying attention. Her eyes narrowed on the woman to whom Face was referring and upon recognizing her, she nearly choked on her fry. "

No," she rasped out between fits of coughing, grabbing her soda and chugging at least a quarter of it to control herself. "Go out with anyone in the world you want to, Face, but not her. She's horrendous."

Face quirked his brow at her, as did Murdock. "You've gone out with her before?"

"No. But my father has."

Nose wrinkling in distaste, Face immediately returned his full attention to the table. "That's all I need to know."

"I think a change of subject is in order." Karina looked to Murdock, a question in her eyes. When he nodded and grinned in a goofy, happy way, she continued. "James and I are going to have another baby!"

While the rest of the table cheered and congratulated the happy couple, Face slunk further down in his seat unnoticeably. He was ecstatic for them, of course, and wished them felicitations of his own, but, again, he was reminded of how he was nowhere close to having what the two of them had together.

"Do you want it to be a boy?" Sam asked conversationally from the other side of the table. Face resisted the urge to throw a glass at his head. It wasn't Sam's fault Face felt this...this...desolate. Desolate and, most of all, alone.

"I don't actually care either way," Karina replied. "Though I'm totally not against having an adorable little boy. To be honest, when I was pregnant with Karina, I was rather hoping she'd be a boy. I always wanted to have a boy first so..."

"So he could protect his little sister?" Sam smiled at Karina in such a way that Face thought they were having some sort of silent communication. Seriously, how was Murdock okay with this friendship?

"Exactly." Karina's eyes softened with love as her gaze landed on Faith sitting next to her Uncle BA as she drew random squiggles on a kid's menu, completely unaware of the conversation around her. "But since she's got her father and three other strapping, strong Army Ranger men in her life, I don't think I really need to worry about her ever being bullied or taken advantage of by some boy."

"Damn right," BA agreed, instantly regretting his choice of words when Faith repeated him.

Face chortled in amusement, the pressure, the panic, in his chest easing up a fraction. "Nice going, BA. And you're the one always lecturing the rest of us on watching what we say around her."

Chagrined, BA turned to Faith and quickly got her singing her favorite song, instantly forgetting about the previous phrase she'd been repeating.

"So how far along are you?" Face asked, turning back to his best friend and his woman.

"A little over two months. I wanted to be absolutely certain before I told anyone, including James."

"You must be very excited," Hannibal addressed Murdock, who was about as exuberant as Face had ever seen him.

"You know I am!" Murdock agreed rapidly.

"He can't wait to see me get fat," Karina chimed in, an amused smile dancing across her pretty mouth.

"You won't be fat," Murdock argued. "You'll be expanding mankind's population."

Face couldn't hold back a laugh at that statement, which was such a Murdock thing to say. But as the conversation started shifting around to them buying a bigger place, maybe close by to where Face and BA lived so there would be readily accessible babysitters at hand, that envious loneliness settled in again and Face found himself ordering another drink. And then another. And then another.

* * *

"Morning, sleeping beauty."

Groaning, Face shifted beneath the sheets and, ignoring Murdock's soft attempts to rouse him out of bed, pressed his face as deep into the pillow as he could without suffocating himself. He mumbled "go away," but he wasn't sure Murdock could make it out through the pillow his face was buried in.

"You gotta get up, Facey."

Sighing, Face reluctantly turned to look at Murdock, his blue eyes blinking owlishly as he tried to avoid making direct eye contact with the sun. Murdock, of all people, usually knew better than to come barging into Face's room after a night of moderate to heavy drinking, so the fact that he was there currently meant there was a pressing matter to be dealt with.

"What's up, buddy?" he asked, for the first time noticing the deep frown pulling at Murdock's lips. "Something wrong?"

Lips pursed, Murdock nodded his head warily. "I tried to send her away, Face, I really did, but she was so damn insistent. And, really, it's difficult for an innocent such as I to fight one such as El Diablo and..."

Face was up and flying out of bed before Murdock could say anything more. He watched in dismay and astonishment the speed at which Face managed to slip a pair of gym shorts over his nakedness just before taking off into the rest of the house. Murdock's head hung and he shook it with a resigned sigh. "Will Face never learn?"

* * *

"Who's that?" Sam asked Karina as Face slid ungracefully into the tiled foyer, making an even less graceful stop against the wall. Her eyes, though, were more focused on the tall, lean, curvy brunette who stood just in front of the door, her chestnut hair - same shade as Sam's own, in fact - pulled back into a tight ponytail and her face pinched tightly.

"James called her El Diablo," Karina replied with a frown. "Her real name, as I've recently learned myself, is Charissa Sosa."

"Let me guess. She and Face used to date."

"Yeah, but apparently this was the first and only one Face has ever been serious about. James said he'd even bought an engagement ring, but as soon as she got promoted, she dumped him and took off. Didn't seem to regret it either. Definitely didn't take Face's feelings into consideration."

Sam frowned, her heart swelling with both empathy and jealousy. "That's terrible. Can I go over and hit her?"

Karina snorted in amusement. "I would pay anything to see that. Unfortunately, it would kind of blow your cover. What's more, this Sosa chick is an Army woman."

"Meaning I'd have my ass handed to me before I even laid a hand on her."

"Precisely." Sam bit down hard on her bottom lip as she watched the tense scene unfold before her.

* * *

"Charissa, what a surprise!" Face panted, mentally flinching at the pain in his side from having collided with the sharp edge of the wall. "What brings you here?"

"I'm tracking someone," she replied sternly, eyes hard, shielding any emotions she might be feeling. "I was hoping the A-Team might help me locate her." "

Her?" Face scrubbed at the back of his neck nervously. After everything this woman had put him through, he still got the jitters when she was nearby. He hated that. He hated her. And yet his body didn't seem to recall that bit, his cock hardening in his shorts just from the familiar scent of her perfume alone.

"Yes. A wanted fugitive who goes by the name Calleigh Swardson."

Face snorted in laughter. "The hell kind of name is that? I would definitely remember if I had come across a woman by the name of Calleigh. What's she wanted for?"

"Mostly embezzlement, but we have it on good authority that she may have also had an ex-partner of hers gunned down."

Licking suddenly dry lips, Face leaned against the wall, making sure to put his impressive torso on wide display. When Charissa's eyes automatically drifted down the length of his entire body, his chest puffed out in pride and he grinned knowingly. "Why don't we talk more about this over dinner?" he asked, ignoring the few groans he heard behind him. The logical part of his brain was rebelling against that idea as well. What the hell was he doing?! Did he want to feel his heart being ripped from his chest all over again? Had he not gotten enough the first time? Or the second?

Charissa sighed. "Face..."

"Not for anything like that!" Face hastily added even as a nervous laugh bubbled out of him. "Just might be easier to get facts about the case over dinner."

"If that's the case," Murdock piped up, "then you surely won't mind Hannibal tagging along."

Face turned to glare at his best friend, but Murdock didn't cower. "Yes," Face muttered through gritted teeth. "I think that's a great idea."

"Fine," Charissa reluctantly agreed, voice terse. "Then I will meet you and Hannibal tonight to discuss possibilities of hiring you. Good day, Face."

"Good..." The door was already shutting before Face could finish replying. "...day." He leaned against the door, right hand tracing down the wood in longing.

* * *

Dread pooled in Sam's gut and she felt as though she had just swallowed an entire gallon of concrete. "It doesn't sound like he's over her at all," she muttered to Karina, who was also frowning.

"He is," Karina insisted. "But the shock of seeing her...well, sometimes with certain exes, that same butterfly feeling comes up inside of us even though we've already moved on. It doesn't usually mean anything." Smiling encouragingly, she reached out and gave Sam's hand a squeeze. "Even if he was still having residual feelings for that she-devil, it's more than clear that those feelings are not returned."

"How could they not be?!" Sam exploded. "Face is a wonderful man. There isn't any part of him that I would change, even his grossness."

Karina laughed. "His grossness?"

"Yeah. Luckily for you, you weren't here the day he and Murdock had a farting contest. I could not re-enter the house for nearly three hours."

Karina's smile only widened. "And even witnessing that extremely unattractive activity, you still want him?"

Sam's cheeks warmed and she put her hands up in an attempt to hide it. "I guess I do."

"Well, his attractive looks can overlook pretty much any other nasty bodily function that..."

"It's not just his looks," Sam interrupted. "Although he is very yummy. He's so easy to talk to. And, whether he knows it or not, he really gets me. He's like me in some ways. He's lonely, proud, strong, stubborn..."

"Pigheaded," Karina corrected.

Sam chuckled fondly. "Yes. He's definitely pigheaded."

"Oh, girl, you are definitely in love."

"Oh god." Sam groaned and slammed her head against the table just as Face walked into the dining room and sat down across from her.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked as he uncapped the lid from a bottle of orange juice and then started gulping it down.

Sam lifted her head, relieved that Face had only just walked in at that moment and not five seconds before. "Guess I had too much to drink last night," she replied.

"Yeah. Me too."

Murdock bounded into the room and glared at Face. "What were you thinkin', Facey? You ain't thinkin' of gettin' back together with her, are you?"

Sighing, Face ran his hand down his face. "Of course not, HM. I don't know what the hell happened out there. It felt like I was a teenager all over again." His facial features darkened for half a second before resuming a neutral expression. "You know, minus the orphanages and...other things."

Sam's brows drew together in curiosity. Other things? What other things was he referring to? She knew of his being an orphan as it had been discussed at some length one night when they were both three sheets to the wind and swinging beneath the stars, but whatever he was talking about was evidently not something he was comfortable sharing with anyone. Not her, at least.

"Go in my place, Murdock," Face begged. "You won't succumb to any tricks she might pull. Please go."

Murdock's nose wrinkled in distaste. "Spend an evening with El Diablo? I don't know, Facey."

"Murdock, it's either spend one evening with her or risk me falling back into bad old habits and spending months of evenings with her."

That lit a spark under Murdock's feet. "Fine. I'll go. But you owe me one."

"Whatever you want, buddy, it's yours."


	11. Chapter 11

**And continuing now with chapter 11! I apologize for the shortness, but we're finally starting on getting the two of them towards the ultimate goal!**

"I think we should set Face up on a date with Sam," were the words that greeted Murdock a week later when he strolled into the apartment with Faith on his shoulders. He gently pried her loose and set her on the floor, tickling her bulging little stomach and making her squeal in laughter. When she'd finally had enough, she ran straight to Karina for an expected sippy cup of juice.

Sighing, Murdock followed her into the kitchen. "And why would we want to do that? Not that Sam ain't a decent woman or anything, but there are many obstacles in the way. One, Face thinks she's a man. Two, she's paying us to look after her, so that would kinda make Facey a whore, and three...well, I don't really have a third reason."

"Whore!" Faith chirped happily and Murdock blushed at having forgotten himself with that word when Karina glared at him.

"Go play in your room, sweetie," Karina cooed to Faith. "Mommy bought you a new Barbie."

Faith gleefully skipped out of the room, no doubt preferring to jump on her bed than to playing with a doll.

"First of all," Karina began, "going out with Sam wouldn't make Face a whore. Keeping her safe and dating her are two entirely separate goings-ons. Secondly, Sam will be introduced to him as a woman, of course. We'll make it a double date. Say she's an old work friend of mine and she's down on her luck and staying with us for awhile."

Murdock anxiously bit into his bottom lip, wishing for a Xanax right now.

"Baby, she is completely in love with him."

That took Murdock by surprise and he looked up at her with wide eyes. "She is?"

Karina nodded. "And I have a strong feeling she is exactly what he needs." She walked forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Weren't you just saying not so long ago about how lonely Face is, how much he longs to have what you and I have? This could be his golden opportunity." A dark scowl crossed her face. "And I think we should set it up before that wicked witch comes back. They always come back, you know."

"Not if you drop a house on' em just right they don't."

Laughing, Karina leaned up and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. "Whaddya say? Talk up my 'mysterious friend' to Face and then we'll set up a cutesy little date for them."

Before he acceded to Karina's wishes, as he was always going to do, a thought occurred to Murdock. "Isn't it dangerous for her to be out in public without a disguise?"

"She'll still be protected," Karina argued and it was more than clear that she was determined to get Sam and Face together. "You and Face will be there, even if only one of you is aware of her situation."

"If they do, in fact, hit it off and start dating, will she keep lying to him? And for how long?"

"I wouldn't expect her to keep lying for long. Living with him would become problematic and Face would eventually notice the striking similarities between his roommate and his girlfriend."

Murdock giggled. "They would be quite striking indeed. Shocking too." He sighed again and pressed his forehead to hers. "Facey does hate blind dates, you know."

"I know, but who doesn't?" Karina tenderly stroked her left hand down the side of his stubbled cheek. "But I know you can somehow manipulate him into it. And if all your tricks for some reason fail and he still refuses to go, you can just remind him that he still owes you a favor for taking his place at the dinner with Sosa."

* * *

"Incredible game, buddy," Face complimented Murdock as they stepped off the basketball court after an intense game of one-on-one. It had been toe-to-toe for three-quarters of the game and then at the last second, Face had managed to shoot a three-pointer over Murdock's head for the winning goal.

"Thanks," Murdock replied as he grabbed up his water bottle and downed more than half of its contents.

Setting down the half-empty bottle, Murdock glanced over at Face as they both dabbed towels against the back of their necks. "Um, hey, Facey?"

"What's up, bud?"

Murdock blew out a deep breath and mentally cursed Karina. Why couldn't _she_ have invited Face out on this date? Sam was supposed to be her friend's, not Murdock's, and it was always easier for men to acquiesce to women's requests than a man's.

"You all right, Murdock?" Face asked in concern after Murdock had remained silent for nearly two full minutes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tryin' to figure out the perfect way to word this." He scratched at the stubble on his chin. "Do you want to go out with me and Karina on Saturday?"

Face blinked in surprise, lips parting in a silent 'O.' Then he spoke again. "What, like a threesome? I can't say I'm opposed to..."

"No, no, no!" Murdock laughed and all the tension building in his shoulders eased. "That was definitely the wrong way to word it. No. An old work friend of Karina's has been staying with us for a few days and we thought, well, maybe the two of you would hit it off. She's really beautiful, single obviously, lonely, and nothing at all like El Diablo."

Face tilted his head to the side questioningly. "You mean to tell me you've had a single attractive woman in your house for at least the last 48 hours and you're only now mentioning her? Yeah, man, I'll give it a shot. Can't be any worse than that big-faced girl I had to take out as a favor for Hannibal's girlfriend of the hour."

"Huh. I don't know why, but for some reason I had envisioned you putting up more of a fight than that."

"Well, in the past I probably would have. Blind dates aren't very appealing. But I'm older now and... You were right, Murdock. A few weeks ago? You were asking me about starting a family and all that?"

Murdock silently nodded.

"You were right. I've got to start being more...selective and less..."

"Horny?"

Face chortled in amusement. "Well, I don't think _that_ is ever going to happen. I just need to stop jumping into bed so quickly. A quick release isn't as satisfying as it used to be."

"Good for you, Face."

As they gathered up the rest of their items and made their way out of the building, Face asked, "So what's her name?"

Murdock briefly faltered before replying with, "Samantha." Well, that was her name. Wasn't like Murdock was directly telling Face that 'Sam' was, in fact, Samantha. Sam could just as easily be Samuel or Samson.

"Another Sam." Face shook his head with a laugh. "What are the odds?"

Murdock laughed nervously. What, indeed?

* * *

Sam paced the length of Karina's bedroom on anxious heels, nails digging gouges into her skin as she constantly balled and un-balled her fists. "He actually agreed to go out with me? _Me?_ ""

"Yes," Karina grunted for the tenth time that night. "And our date is happening in less than an hour, so I suggest you shimmy your little body into that little dress and get ready."

Sam eyed the gold and white dress Karina had managed to find amongst her 'to be worn someday' clothes in her suitcase. She had only ever worn it the one time she had tried it on in the store dressing room. She remembered it being clingy, low-cut, and short. She wasn't sure she was ready to parade that much of her body in front of the world yet, let alone Face.

"Maybe I can borrow something from you," Sam tried to argue. "Something less revealing."

"Nuh-uh. Girl, you've kept that body under wraps long enough. You are going to show it off and you are going to flaunt what you've got."

A reluctant laugh slipped out of Sam's lips. "And you think Face will like it?"

"I know he will. Hell, Murdock sure liked what he saw when he accidentally walked in on you in the bathroom."

"Murdock couldn't possibly..."

"Hush now and get dressed. We don't want Face to think you like to keep men waiting."

* * *

Face shifted impatiently in his seat for what felt like the tenth time in ten minutes. "Where the hell are they?" he demanded of Murdock, who was whistling a Disney song on the other side of the table.

Murdock shrugged. "Picking up flowers?"

Face snorted in amusement. "Flowers? For us?"

"Why not? They wanted to be treated like equals. They can buy men flowers for a first date."

Just as Face was ordering himself a second beer, Karina plopped down in the empty chair next to Murdock and smiled breathlessly. "Sorry we're late. My fault."

Face glanced around, but saw no one approaching the table. "Is my date invisible? That would be an interesting first for me."

"No," Karina drawled with a laugh. "She's just a wee bit nervous. I showed her a picture of you and, well, she's intimidated."

"Why? There's nothing to be intimidated about."

"I know that and I told her that, so she logically knows it as well, but she still needed a minute to herself to gather up some liquid courage. I promise you she's not going to bolt."

* * *

Shoving aside her fourth empty shot glass, Sam decided enough was enough and stood to her feet. She'd procrastinated long enough now and if she didn't make her presence known, Face might very well assume he'd been stood up. She couldn't let him think that. She would never stand him up. She would never stand anyone up.

After paying her tab, Sam turned to find her table when her eye caught on the stage where people were in line to sing karaoke. She bit thoughtfully into her bottom lip, glanced apprehensively at the table where the other three sat, and then slowly made her way to the back of the line. She thought over song options while she waited and by the time she made it to the front, she'd decided on One Boy, One Girl by Collin Raye.

Fingers trembling with nerves, Sam grabbed ahold of the mic and glanced up into the crowd. She could see Karina looking startled up at her before pointing her out to Face, whose eyes instantly locked with hers.

* * *

All the breath left Face's body the moment his eyes met Samantha's. She was more beautiful than he ever could have dreamed. He couldn't quite see the color of her eyes from this distance, but he couldn't imagine anyone having prettier irises than hers. Her shoulder-length auburn hair gleamed beneath the fluorescent lightbulbs that shone from above and he couldn't help noticing the way her dress clung to ample curves and long, long, to-die-for legs. Every instinct in Face was demanding he storm the stage and claim her as his, but he didn't want to scare her away.

He knew, deep in his gut, that this was the woman he had been waiting his whole life for.


End file.
